New STEM Teachers / New Teacher Advice / STEM By Design
by Anne Jolly · Published 08/30/2015 · Last modified 02/16/2022
As school begins this year, quite a few educators face a new and potentially daunting assignment: Teach STEM. Expert Anne Jolly is here with help – six essential tips that can help “sudden” STEM educators survive a challenging start and achieve success.
Holding a clear sense of vision and purpose for the school is important for the principal. Ronald Williamson and Barbara Blackburn share leadership tools to help develop a personal vision and then work collaboratively with the school community to develop a shared vision.
Written from the experiences of two veteran teachers, Empowering Families is the most useful guide in promoting student literacy at home that 4th grade teacher Alex T. Valencic has ever come across. He plans to share its many suggestions with teachers and parents this fall.
A three-perspective approach to reading response (as a reader, a writer and a human being) has been a helpful resource for Sarah Donovan and for her students as they respond to writing by their peers. Donovan includes several model activities and examples.
In “Q Tasks,” Carol Koechlin & Sandi Zwaan argue that the key to learning, understanding & thinking critically is the Question. The book’s 50 or so lessons help students generate & use questions for learning & evaluating information, says Laura Von Staden.
When it comes to high expectations, learning consultant Barbara Blackburn says actions speak louder than beliefs. Using her own classroom mistakes as a backdrop, she points out the teacher behaviors that signal struggling learners whether we mean what we say.
The first step toward gamifying your classroom can be as simple as taking the “ew” out of “review” with these helpful game-oriented apps, selected and described by tech integration expert Curtis Chandler. Included: Quizizz, Kahoot, Classcraft and Class Dojo.
Author and former middle level school leader Frank Buck spends his professional life helping fellow educators manage themselves and their work in ways that maximize performance and benefit students. Buck shares three practical ideas to organize the new school year.
New principals can fall prey to “task overload.” What’s more, the transition from working with teachers as peers to working as a supervisor can be disorienting. Experts Ron Williamson & Barbara Blackburn share advice in six critical areas of the new job.
Iconic images from popular culture can raise consciousness about issues, many of them tied to health and gender awareness, writes media literacy consultant Frank W. Baker. He offers memorable examples and ties this phenomenon to teaching visual literacy.
