Teacher Rebecca Crockett writes author Jessica Shumway has given her all the tools she needs to really commit to using number sense routines with her fifth graders, including explaining routine types, building community, and engaging all students in the discussion.
Collaboration doesn’t always come naturally (or calmly) for middle level students. Teacher Michael McClenaghan shares his success with three edtech tools (Soundtrap, WeVideo and the free G Suite) in facilitating meaningful teamwork and higher levels of student engagement.
Current Events / Future of History
by Sarah Cooper · Published 09/23/2018 · Last modified 11/13/2019
Current events add immediacy to history class, but with crowded curricula and the challenges of the political climate, Sarah Cooper is fine-tuning the news discussions in her 8th grade classes. She shares several stories and explains what makes them right for fall 2018.
Museum educator Christa Flores shares a summer STEM partnership that introduced middle schoolers to programmable microprocessors that can perform a variety of lab-oriented tasks. Flores, a former MS teacher, says it’s time to include computer skills in science classrooms.
Create Compose Connect / ELA Digital Tools
by Jeremy Hyler · Published 09/12/2018 · Last modified 11/17/2019
Pairing English Language Arts classrooms with appropriate technology can be “down right difficult,” says author and middle grades ELA teacher Jeremy Hyler. He recommends experimenting with no more than two digital tools at a time and shares a pair of his own favorites.
It is not the skills or rules of sports that our students will remember from our teaching of physical literacy, writes PHE teacher Anthony De Giorgio, but the environment and experiences we provided that allowed them to not only learn, but to also have fun and be a kid.
After 17 years Mary Tarashuk finds her memory-laden purple bookshelf can no longer carry the load. As she moves her read aloud novels to a brightly lit window shelf, she checks in with her collection to determine which 4th grade favorites will star in the new school year.
The practical format of Regie Routman’s Literacy Essentials makes reading this robust, idea-packed book a pleasure. Its many examples, pictures, anchor charts, lesson plans, and lists make the advice easy to access and implement, writes improvement specialist Deana Jones.
First Days of Math Class / Meaningful Math
by Michelle Russell · Published 09/04/2018 · Last modified 12/05/2019
When students entered Michelle Russell’s classes for the first time during an extra-busy start of school, she saw it was time to focus on priorities: engagement, community building, classroom management, and sparking some excitement about math. Here’s what she did.
Anyone can doodle, writes Dr. Susan Daniels. When students doodle to represent concepts and ideas, they synthesize information and encode it in memory for easy recall and retrieval. It’s a well-researched strategy that can be used across grade levels and subject areas.
