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I AM Poetry? by: Laura McDonell
Listen The Possibility of Being a Natural Poet You Are A Poet I have had several identities throughout my life. There are several things I belong to. However, when I heard that I was a poet, I was surprised. I have never thought of myself as someone who writes poetry....
Take the LEAP Creating A Classroom Of Courageous and Empowered Learners By: Laura McDonell
Listen Having courage means doing something when the answer of how it will turn out is unknown. It is Not Always Easy to Be Courageous Courage is not something that comes naturally to everyone. And even when it is a familiar value, it is not always easy to practice courage...
I Never Thought About That What If My Assumptions were Wrong By: Laura McDonell
Listen The Student Perspective Seeing things from the student’s perspective is challenging. After watching one of Dr. Kevin Leichtman’s videos, I realized that there might be a few things regarding education that I have never thought about. Understanding motivations behind student actions is a priority. The Perfect Ten offered me...
Add More Music How the Pepper Effect Taps into the Magic of Creativity, Collaboration and Innovation by: Laura McDonell
Listen Where words fail, music speaks. (Hans Christian Anderson) A Must Read A few weeks ago, I read The Pepper Effect by Sean Gaillard. After reading Gaillard’s book, I gained a new perspective on how I can do things differently to achieve the impossible. The book helped me to think...
Seeing My Students by: Laura McDonell
Listen Looking and seeing are two different things. (John Paul Caponigro) Allowing someone the opportunity to be seen and noticed is a gift. When I think about how many times I have quickly glanced around the classroom to “see” that my students are present and what they are working on,...
Making Memories for Students by Hollie Hamaker
Listen "Everyone who remembers his own education remembers teachers, not methods, and techniques. The teacher is the heart of the educational system." -Sidney Hook Think of your favorite teacher from when you were in school. What do you remember from them? I doubt it was taking notes or listening to...
Reformation: Attitudes About Student Learning Ability
Listen We’ve all heard the idea that every student can learn, but believing that takes on a whole new level of faith when you’re in the trenches with struggling students. Our gut instinct is to get out of the situation and hand that student over to someone “more qualified” to...
Reformation: Content Delivery
Listen Lecture is incredibly difficult to get away from, isn’t it? Even in the earlier grades, it’s often difficult to let go and let discover rather than presenting all the information known to mankind in the areas in which we are certified experts. Science tells us that lecture is ineffective...
The Most Important Piece of the Virtual Classroom Puzzle: Re-Engagement - Laura McDonell
Listen Imagine this. You are a 10th grader. Week one, you are coming off summer break to find out that your parents signed you up for virtual learning. Frustration is an understatement as you beg and beg to go to school in person. In an effort to show...
Book Review: The Distance Learning Playbook
Listen I was mowing the yard, listening to some education podcasts a couple of weeks ago, and listened to two different podcasters interview the authors of The Distance Learning Playbook: Teaching for Engagement & Impact in Any Setting. First, it was Justin Baeder of Principal Center Radio interviewing Douglas Fisher....
Tips for Virtual Teaching for Lower Elementary
Listen Introduction Teaching elementary students online is a difficult prospect, but a necessary one given the circumstances of the world today. There are naysayers who will say that teaching online at this age is impossible, that the difficulties and barriers make virtual teaching ineffective.This is not true, but it is...
Reformation: Creating or Redefining Your Purpose Statements
Listen In our last article, we shared some of the mission statements, vision statements, and value lists for some of the top schools in the world. As we looked through these statements, we were really inspired to work on our own statements. Many, if not all, schools and districts have...
Technology and Education in the 21st Century By Debbie Thoreson
Listen As a teacher, I have often thought, “Seriously, why does this student think I’ll believe this is hard for him?” After all, I begin with the same historical texts as I have for nearly a decade; yet I notice each year there are more...
Reformation: Embracing the Outdoors
Listen In this article, we’ll take a step away from our eleven leaders and reach a bit further out, because there are many schools around the world who have used the opportunity the pandemic has provided to be outdoors more. Pre-pandemic, many schools and districts in the U.S. added more...
Part 1: Reformation: Indoor Learning Environments
Listen We thought we were breaking boundaries with flexible seating. The reality is, though, we’re probably still doing everything the same. The only difference is just that we’ve offered our students “fun” chairs. Reforming education is no more about offering the same old, tired content to kids sitting on bouncy...
Answering "Why" in Professional Development
Listen Years ago, I was in a professional development meeting that tackled the topic of adding “essential questions” to each of our planned lessons. There was instruction on the language we should use, the structure of the questions themselves, and how to tie each question to state standards. Yet I...
Education Podcasts, Part 2: What We Have Learned from Them
Listen We wanted to share some of what we have learned recently from the education podcasts we have been listening to. Principal Center Radio Douglas Fisher - The Distance Learning Playbook (Jul 31) Douglas Fisher’s has some great, practical tips on distance learning! He suggests that teachers should integrate synchronous...
Your Most Marketable Skills, Part 1
Listen Communication, Instruction, and Complex Thinking Skills Educators in some parts of the U.S. have started seeing the economic repercussions of the pandemic. Some places have started to shed staff as budgets crumble and belts tighten.In other places, teachers are finding returning to teaching in the fall in either virtual...
How Do I Do a Science Lab Virtually?
Listen Doing a lab with a room full of kids can be unnerving in the best of conditions, whether they are 6, 12, or 16. You have balance explicit directions, chemicals, and scalpels with immaturity, ADHD, and power struggles (and that may just be your PLC). How in the world...
Teaching Culturally Responsive Literature: Part 3, Hispanic/Latinx Literature
Listen Students of Latin heritage cannot be placed into a box, though they are often stereotyped. While there are 20 countries in Central and South America, many teachers just assume that Hispanic students are of Mexican descent. Trouble with the English language is often quite incorrectly associated with an...
Teaching Culturally Responsive Literature: Part 2, African American Literature
Listen Many teachers and administrators are grappling with how to address the social concerns that the recent events in our country have brought up. The truth is that the protests and riots have only brought to the forefront issues that our students carry with them into our classrooms every day. ...
Adapted Physical Education
Listen For many, the Life Skills hallway on a school campus is a place of joy. Administrators can be found high-fiving and dancing with the students as a reprieve from their burdensome load. General education students often enjoy volunteering and assisting. Visitors can be greeted by peels of laughter and...
Be the Change
Listen If you’ve ever walked into a break room at lunchtime, you know that all of the educational experts are sitting in that room talking about the problems and solutions of day-to-day classroom life. And yet, it seems as though the experts are never the people making the decisions! Teachers...
Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students - In the General Education Classroom
Listen Most students who are born with serious hearing impairments are identified as infants or when they are very young. By the time they enter the general education classroom, they’ve got an I.E.P with accommodations., assistance as needed, and a support system in place. However, if you’re teaching a student...
Troubleshooting for Elementary Blended Learning in the Classroom
Listen In our last article, we explored what blended learning looks like in the elementary classroom setting. Because blended learning is used a lot more in the late elementary and secondary settings, there are some “kinks” to be worked out. Here are some suggestions on ways to do that. All...
Teachers’ Concerns About Returning to School
Listen In a previous post we explored how other countries are coping with reopening schools, but teachers around the globe have so many practical questions and concerns regarding the implications of reopening when there are still so many unknowns about this virus. Many teachers feel left out as the decisions...
How Other Countries Are Coping with Restarting School
Listen Students and educators alike have been terribly disappointed by the fact that school won’t be resuming face-to-face classes for this school year. Although there are many disadvantages to those involved in remote learning, there are some things that can be taken into consideration as advantages. One great advantage is...
Literacy in High School, Part 2: Student Choice
Listen In our previous post, we look at how Reading Workshop can be used in the secondary classroom, but getting students to read depends a lot on what they read. Student Choice Richard Allington and Rachel Gabriel stated in their 2012 article in Educational Leadership, “Every Child, Every Day” that...
Literacy in High School, Part 1: Reading Workshop
Listen Getting teenagers to want to read can seem like an impossible task. Heck, getting teenagers to not turn to active revolt, bearing protest signs (or at least passive and indifferent expressions) upon the mere mention of reading a book could be considered a victory worth running out of your...
Remote Learning Idea #6: Teaching High School Using Children’s Books
Listen This weird season of remote learning is the perfect time to try something new and make a bit of a fool of yourself if it will get your students’ attention and keep it while also providing a meaningful learning experience. One of our writers’ favorite things to do when...
Non-Standard Units of Measurement in Early Math
We recently had a great question from a teacher. She asked if anyone else hated teaching non-standard units of measurement in math. That reminded those of us who teach math of many years of the same frustration and struggle. However, when we sat down and talked about it as a...
Time Management for Online Classes
Listen It’s difficult to manage new technology while you’re also trying to manage your class and teach content. In order to make it easier, create an outline template that you can follow to stay on track. 45-Minute Lesson Example Greet and Hello, -00:10 to 00:00 If it’s possible, open the...
Rules and Tools for Classroom Management
Listen Online learning is a brave new world. You may feel that you’re starting to get the hang of the online learning experience, but you hope to add a little more depth in the coming weeks. That’s hard to do when your online classroom is like the Wild, Wild West...
Helping Parents Teach Their Children
Listen Parents are struggling. They are not okay right now. They may be reaching out to you for help, and you may be thinking to yourself, “I didn’t sign up to teach parents how to teach.” However, this is where we’re at. Parents have been tasked with becoming their child’s...
Remote Learning Idea #3: Do-able Poetry Intro or Review
Listen How can 6 little letters elicit such fear, dread, anxiety, and memories of failure and defeat? And, that’s just for the teachers! Many of us literature nerds love poetry. You probably remember how excited you were building your poetry packet your first year teaching ELAR. The other teachers on...
Remote Learning Idea #1: Novel Studies for Secondary Students
Listen For most of us, the notion of remote learning is a totally foreign experience, but many of the things we have been doing in class can be translated to fit into this new platform. The reality is that not all parents are properly equipped to teach heavy content, and...
8 Tips for Teaching Classes Online
Listen UPDATE 2: 3/14/2020, 5:30 P.M. The free version of Zoom is back up and in order. UPDATE: (3/13/2020, 12:31 P.M.) We recommended Zoom below as a free service, but in the past 12 hours, we’ve become aware that their free services are temporarily suspended because they are overwhelmed...
Increasing the Educational Value of Field Trips
Listen ‘Tis the season for field trips! Often, teachers view this as sort of a holiday. We may divvy up students among vetted parent volunteers and spend the day with only one or two of our students, looking around and enjoying the scenery. This is nice for us, but there...
Tips for Combating Student Anxiety
Listen Childhood has always been filled with stressors, but recent studies show that childhood anxiety is on the rise. The Child Mind Institute says that 30% of children now experience significant anxiety, although many of these children never receive treatment. The CDC says that the number of diagnoses increased from...
Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD)
Listen What Is ODD? Oppositional Defiance Disorder is a behavioral disorder. According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms include persistent angry or irritable moods, extreme defiance for authority figures, frequent need to argue, and vindictiveness. Students with ODD most often deal with other disorders simultaneously and in addition to ODD. Frequent...
Writing Centers that Inspire
Listen Every grade level and subject can benefit from a writing center. Where most elementary classrooms are used to using a “center” approach to learning, fewer secondary teachers are familiar with the concept, but secondary teachers are starting to catch on and use the strategies, as well. A writing center...
Providing Meaningful Professional Development
Listen If we’re being honest, most of us have been subjected to hours of professional development that either didn’t apply to us, didn’t interest us, or were not the best use of our time. If we’re being honest, few among us have neglected to grade papers we’ve smuggled into a...
Using Curriculum in the Elementary Classroom
Listen A curriculum is what you make of it. Unfortunately, no one really tells teachers in most districts what to make of curriculum. Few schools tell you how much or how often to use it, and even fewer tell you exactly how. When you adopt a new curriculum, there is...
Combatting Personal Bias in the Classroom
Listen Humans have a natural tendency to want to group themselves with other people who are similar. It’s likely an instinct that at one point helped us survive and keep our families intact. Now, however, the instinct can be less helpful. There are many ways we separate ourselves including race,...
Dysgraphia and Writing Disorders: Beginning with Dyslexia
Listen The first cases of dyslexia were written about in the 1880s, around the time both Samuel Orton and Anna Gillingham were both born. In the 1920s, the two had started working toward what is now known as the Orton-Gillingham approach, which laid the foundation for educating students with dyslexia...
New Elementary Substitute Survival Guide
Listen Substitutes are incredibly vital members of the school district community. A good substitute is a teacher’s absolute best friend. While many teachers will leave work for the students to do and lessons for you to teach while they are gone, for the first few times you sub, they may...
Working with Young and Inexperienced Parents of Students
Listen Parenting is a tough gig, and when working with younger children, it’s especially clear when your student is coming from a family with very young parents who have little social support. Educators are in a unique position to help young and inexperienced parents. Here are a few things we’ve...
Goal-Setting with Young Students (Pre-K through 2nd Grade)
Listen Goals are like a road map. Setting and achieving goals are important life skills, and people aren’t born knowing how to do it. Many of the most successful people in the world rely on setting goals as motivation and a way to harness self-direction. Teaching children to set goals,...
12(ish) Great Games for Math Learning in Grades K-2
Listen We love using games to reinforce learning skills! We went through our cabinets and lockers and pulled out some of our favorites for games that help kindergartners, first graders, and second graders with numeracy, addition, subtraction, and even money. So without further ado, here are a few of our...
Great Games for Learning, Part 1: High School ELAR & LOTE
Listen Having fun is psychologically and neurologically beneficial to learning. When students and teachers play, the brain produces a concoction of “happy chemicals”, namely dopamine and endorphins. Oxygen levels even increase. When there is an opportunity for collaborative risk and reward, learning is far more likely. The novelty created by...