Teachers often spend much time building relationships with students at the beginning of the year. But I have also found it helpful to keep in touch with my students’ needs – and allow them to share information with me – through regular check-ins. There are many ways to do check-ins, and I think it’s a… Read More

All students, no matter the level, want their teachers to like and respect them. Some students have been disappointed by adults (either school adults or home adults) and may try to act as if they don’t care whether you like them or not, but this tends to be a defense mechanism. Our job, with all… Read More

One of the biggest differences between upper and lower elementary is the level of independence. Most of the time that’s a good thing! But If you’re new to teaching upper elementary students, you may be wondering about how much independence is appropriate to expect or how to best encourage that independence. So here are some… Read More

We’re all looking for ways to build relationships and community at back to school time. If you’re teaching upper elementary students, you may be wondering how to do that. Here are some of my best suggestions, from 30+ years of teaching upper elementary grades and from observing many master teachers. By the way, if you’re… Read More

I’ll never forget receiving my student teaching placement: fifth grade. Ugh. I had completed several hours of classroom work at lower grade levels and did not feel at all prepared to teach students who were nearly as tall as I was. I was worried that I wouldn’t know how to deal with behaviors or bad… Read More

A few years ago, I worked as an instructional coach for our state’s department of education. In one school, I saw the school leadership insist that every teacher begin the first day of school almost like a college class – go over the “syllabus” (as in: “welcome to first grade and this is what we’ll… Read More