Using the Reading Response strategy, Marilyn Pryle writes, class time becomes a time of meaningful discovery. Students do not passively ingest information but actively create ideas through their own thinking, writing and discussion. Teachers facilitate, clarify and celebrate.
With commitment and hard work, school librarians can become indispensable to school success, writes Judi Moreillon. Through their support for community building, PD, inquiry learning, digital resources and more, librarians can be a vital part of leadership teams.
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.
Supports for ELs / The Unstoppable ML Teacher
by Valentina Gonzalez · Published 09/10/2018 · Last modified 03/07/2025
Your English learners need some extra scaffolds and supports to level the playing field. They are learning a new language while navigating content at the same time. EL specialist Valentina Gonzalez highlights 18 ways that you can help support them in their journey.
Sarah Cooper’s Creating Citizens is brimming with insight on how to connect current events to history, writes social studies teacher Joanne Bell. Cooper offers fresh ideas, higher order skills, and excellent implementation tips, all applicable to any period of history.
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.
Megan Kelly always intends to integrate poetry across her units, but somehow ends up scrambling each year as National Poetry Month approaches. This fall she has a list of activities to hold herself accountable. Try some of her ideas in your own ELA, history, science or math classes.
Teacher Emily Francis shares her immigrant journey from a childhood in Guatemala to a North Carolina classroom in an effort to help fellow teachers gain insights about their own Newcomer students “who need, from day one, sociocultural support that reaches their heart.”
Current Events / Future of History
by Lauren S. Brown · Published 08/28/2018 · Last modified 03/03/2025
As schools reopen, Lauren Brown revisits the essentials of history teaching in a time when authoritarianism is in the air. Central are not only caring about individuals in the next generation but also being ‘keepers of the meaning’ when established values are challenged.
