A week of sitting in a teaching seminar has left Sarah Cooper inspired but also thoughtful about how students experience daily classroom life. “I felt new empathy for having to follow teachers’ instructions all day long.” Read her 10 takeaways.
Embracing Technology / Kids on the Cusp
by Mary Tarashuk · Published 07/16/2014 · Last modified 11/16/2019
This summer middle grades teacher Mary Tarashuk is diving into the deep end of the technology pool, accepting a challenging online leadership role. Yet she’s determined to protect the beach time she needs for family and reflection on the school year ahead.
New to the STEM classroom? Returning for another year of STEM when fall arrives? Either way, summer is the ideal time to wrap your head around what you’ll be doing. Try some of Anne Jolly’s suggestions for what you can do in July!
While most students understand how to operate smart phones, they understand far less about what they see on their digital devices. Learning visual literacy in school is a vital skill today, says Frank W. Baker.
During the ISTE 2014 Conference in Atlanta GA, we posted a sampler of tech-oriented MiddleWeb articles, blog posts and reviews that we believe might add a little something to your digital toolbox. Passionate learning? Connected students? We got it!
Kids on the Cusp / Last Days of School
by Mary Tarashuk · Published 06/09/2014 · Last modified 05/20/2025
What’s a teacher to do when vacation doesn’t begin until late in June and the classroom is hot, hot, hot? NJ teacher Mary Tarashuk tells how she’s planned so her 4th graders will stay focused & engaged, with the help of a just-in-time PTO gift.
Book Reviews / Personal Learning Networks
by MiddleWeb · Published 05/16/2014 · Last modified 05/19/2014
Organized and user friendly, Professional Learning in the Digital Age by Kristen Swanson provides educator cases, face-to-face protocols, research snippets and to-do lists to help teachers move through the process of developing their PLN, says reviewer Nicole Miller.
Common Core Reading Lessons: Pairing Literary and Nonfiction Texts to Promote Deeper Understanding is a winner! Authors O’Reilly and Stooksbury take a positive, practical approach for dealing with the CCSS’s emphasis on nonfiction, says reviewer Anne Anderson.
The topic of dictionaries came up in assorted conversations in the past few weeks, reminding Kevin Hodgson both of the power of those esteemed books of words as symbols of thought and scholarship, and the ways in which technology is completely altering the ease and means of how we find information when we need it.
Green STEM Projects / STEM By Design
by Anne Jolly · Published 04/06/2014 · Last modified 11/24/2019
Earth Day: Science educator Anne Jolly remembers her first and best STEM project, when disengaged 8th graders learned how cool math, science and engineering could be by constructing a wetlands to reduce the environmental impact of a new school.
