In The Pepper Effect, middle school principal and Beatles lover Sean Gaillard draws lessons for educators from the Fab Four and their album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” to create a culture where students can innovate, writes teacher leader Laura Von Staden.
2018 was a bonanza year for STEM, and 2019 holds even more promise. But we face some big challenges to get STEM education where it can fully deliver on its potential. Anne Jolly outlines four areas to radically improve STEM and instruction generally in today’s schools.
Optimism is alive and well in many schools. It’s not dependent on school demographics or staff longevity, say Jack Breckemeyer and Debbie Silver. It flows from a leader’s ability to demonstrate optimism in action, to inspire others to join in, and to teach them how.
Close Reading the Media / Math & Media Literacy
by Frank Baker · Published 01/22/2019 · Last modified 11/13/2019
Educators are keenly aware that using real life examples in class helps students make important connections between the curriculum and their own lives. Media literacy expert Frank Baker shares some favorite ideas about engaging math students with Nielson TV ratings data.
Attitude Adjustment / Meaningful Math
by Michelle Russell · Published 01/21/2019 · Last modified 11/26/2019
The link between teacher-student relationships and achievement is getting lots of press. Michelle Russell agrees her math students thrive when they find her likeable. How to up her likeability quotient? Attending to student concerns, not just pacing directives, to start.
Future-Focused Learning will drive you to think deeply about your instructional practices and consider what you need to change. Alex Valencic likes the book’s focus on what students both need and want to learn and finds it solidly on-target if occasionally frustrating.
To help students with special needs succeed, Blackburn and Witzel explain how rigor, RTI and MTSS can go hand in hand. The authors detail how RTI’s tiered interventions work with MTSS’s focus on core instruction for all students, writes doctoral student Bryndle Bottoms.
For Mary Tarashuk looking ahead toward her 4th graders’ learning in the new semester requires taking a glance back, in an attempt to assess their progress so far and set worthy goals for the journey to come. Holiday cards from Emma, Lila and Mooish show her the way.
Ask teachers for some Do Now synonyms and they’ll come up with terms like Warm-up, Quick Review, and First Steps. Teaching coach Sarah Tantillo’s favorite is Brain Defibrillator. When done right and used routinely, she says, Do Nows establish a norm of urgency in your class.
How do teachers recharge regularly? Rather than mediation and exercise, Rita Platt finds what works for her is getting a daily dose of “gut-busting laughter.” And guess what? Laughing as self-care is a scientifically proven strategy! She offers laugh inducing resources.
