Are you drawing a blank about the what to do on the first days of school in the upper elementary grades? I can help! (And if you’re already past the first week of school – some tips here might help you too!) Here’s the first thing to know: the day will go by more quickly… Read More
I recently updated a 2019 post about The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of American’s Broken Education System — and How to Fix it by Natalie Wexler. You can read that post HERE. In this post, I am offering suggestions for how to incorporate more knowledge-building activities into your teaching. This will be especially helpful… Read More
Source If you are still wrapping up your school year, you might be looking around, watching your students enjoy the engaging and independent activities you’re giving them (see this post for some ideas!). They’re excited for summer. You’re excited for summer. But ugh – then you start thinking about that end of the year checklist… Read More
Yes, we’re tired at the end of another school year. Yes, our students think school is basically “done.” Yes, we have billions of things to do to wrap up the year. But we also want to enjoy the last days with our students while keeping them busy and engaged. What we need are some easy,… Read More
No teacher looks forward to end-of-year testing. The complaints are valid: they take too much time (our state’s reading test, for example, is two hours long), they cause too much stress (primarily to the students who do NOT need to be worried about them), and they don’t always reflect all of the learning and growth… Read More
Springtime and the approach of the end of the year can bring out lots of troublesome behaviors in our students. And with some students missing out on so much in-school “socialization” time during COVID, we are seeing more of these behaviors than ever. This post will be a bit of “when this happens . .… Read More