Paid ads and social media give lots of exposure to Presidential candidates. They also get free visibility from magazines, though they don’t always like what they see. Frank Baker offers a magazine-cover activity to help students build media literacy skills.
After a decade of forgoing the activity, Sarah Cooper recently revisited hand-drawn concept maps as a means to further engage her 8th graders in US reform movements. Here she shares ideas she’ll use to deepen the successful assignment next time.
Learning Personalized is a resource that does not shy away from wading into the messiness that is true learning. Educators can deeply explore the book, one chunk at a time, to create learning experiences that appeal to all types of students.
Williamson and Blackburn set out to provide strategies and resources for education leaders to use as they work to achieve more rigorous, supportive schools. The description of this book as a “toolkit” couldn’t be more accurate, says principal Bret Olson.
Engineering Career Preparation / STEM By Design
by Anne Jolly · Published 03/29/2016 · Last modified 11/13/2019
The sky’s the limit for students pursuing engineering careers. Anne Jolly offers STEM educators Q&As they can share with middle graders who’d like to investigate engineering’s possibilities. Jolly highlights creativity, teamwork, making a difference and more.
Evernote is a 21st century day planner. In Part 4 of his productivity series for school leaders, organization consultant and former principal Frank Buck singles out Evernote as a must-have for collecting school and home information in an easily accessible way.
Even before you view the lessons and become acquainted with the many cross-curricular strategies the authors of Smuggling Writing share, you’ll discover a matrix that unifies the strategies, literacy strands, samples, lessons, digital applications and CCSS.
In The Gift of Failure, teacher/writer Jessica Lahey calls on parents to value failures along the way to help children build growth mindsets. She also effectively describes how educators can work with parents, reports retired principal Mary Langer Thompson.
Future of History / Project Based Learning
by Jody & Shara · Published 03/22/2016 · Last modified 11/25/2019
Project-based learning in history class can be challenging as teachers juggle a content-laden curriculum and limited class time. Shara and Jody and their tech colleague Doug Hinko set out to find practical ways to make PBL work with a unit on medieval China.
Excellent Teaching / It's Not Easy Being Tween
by Cheryl Mizerny · Published 03/21/2016 · Last modified 12/01/2019
During March Madness we have to ask: what can teachers learn from great coaches? Cheryl Mizerny reflects on the words of basketball coaching legends and considers how their insights carry over into classrooms and the work teachers do with their own learners.
