Book Reviews / Social & Emotional Learning
by MiddleWeb · Published 06/08/2017 · Last modified 11/12/2019
Carla Tantillo Philibert’s Everyday SEL in Elementary School gives inspiring, practical advice and lessons to help educators in classrooms and schoolwide meet their students’ social and emotional needs, says upper elementary teacher Linda Biondi.
Quality Questioning Can Help Us Transform Our Classrooms provides a detailed guide for fashioning quality questions and asking them in ways to encourage student learning. Instructional Partner Debby Smith says new and veteran teachers will want to keep it at hand.
Jenny Grant Rankin’s First Aid for Teacher Burnout: How You Can Find Peace and Success is the perfect salve for the tired teacher’s soul. This short book is packed full of great ideas to relieve, rejuvenate, and energize, says teacher-librarian Rita Platt.
Close Reading the Media / Infographics
by Frank Baker · Published 05/30/2017 · Last modified 11/21/2019
Increasingly information is being conveyed in visual terms, and the flashy graphics can both clarify and mislead. Media literacy expert Frank Baker has teaching ideas to help students think more deeply about the infographics and visual data flooding our brains.
Future of History / Teaching with Movies
by Sarah Cooper · Published 05/29/2017 · Last modified 11/27/2019
Showing short video clips to her history students is easy for Sarah Cooper to justify, but with full-length movies she is more cautious about the time investment. Here she shares three films that make the cut: Iron Jawed Angels, Glory, and All the President’s Men.
Baby Boomer teachers are rapidly retiring and being replaced by members of Generation Y or “Millennials” who hold very different beliefs about the workplace and the way principals work with them. Ronald Williamson and Barbara Blackburn share ideas to help them thrive.
You may not be able to stem the tide of Shiny New Things coming your way, but using Woodson and Frakes’ book you will be able to show which reforms are making a difference in the lives of your students and which are just passing fads, writes teacher Alex Valencic.
Brain Friendly Strategies / end-of-year learning / Two Teachers in the Room
by Elizabeth Stein · Published 05/16/2017 · Last modified 11/27/2019
Spring is in the air and kids’ attention is fluttering around and beyond the room. Elizabeth Stein shares a bit of timely brain science and offers strategies to help co-teachers bring their students’ attention back to class as the end of school approaches.
Educator James Alan Sturtevant is ready with quick, low cost or free hacks for those days when teachers need to generate curiosity and enthusiasm. His 50 tips and tools are clearly laid out and further explained through individual podcasts, says teacher Linda Biondi.
Research leaves little doubt that strategic use of groups and teams boosts achievement for most students, says teacher educator Curtis Chandler. Learn about the key elements of group work and several digital tools that make forming groups flexible and efficient.
