Category: Classroom

21 Questions You Absolutely Should Ask Your Students On Their First Day Back To School

It’s a new school year, and with it comes an entirely fresh group of students in your classroom. Each of these children have their own story – their own unique dreams, fears and goals. And you […]

7 Great Uses For OneNote & Lense In The Classroom

If you haven’t heard of OneNote, it’s time you did. It’s often been described as a “digital 3-ring binder” because it’s a great resource for storing all your digital information. While that is true, it doesn’t […]

9 Sets of Multiplication Flash Cards For Engaging Math Practice

Using flash cards, including multiplication flash cards has long been accepted as a simple, yet effective way to teach children skills that require memorization. Flash cards use repetition to teach a skill and increase recall and […]

Three Points of Impact for Lasting Transformational Change

I’ve been getting many congratulatory messages on LinkedIn to mark the three year anniversary of my consulting business. This milestone has given me a reason to reflect on the past three years and all that I’ve […]

Moderate to Severe Developmental Disability: Eight Essential Skills for Living

Most evaluation tools and curricula arrange skills according to the way a typical child might acquire them. Essential for Living by Patrick McGreevy, PhD BCBA-D et al takes a different approach. They group skills into categories […]

Why Teach Digital Citizenship in 2018

Bryan likes to tell his children – unlike a diamond, what you do on the internet remains intact forever. The web is a tool – one that leaves a lasting impression with your actions, both good […]

All The World’s An Inference

NEVER. READ. A. JOKE. Trust me, just don’t ever do it. As well written, as well crafted, as a joke may be, like a note of music, it must be played and performed. It must be […]

How Virtual Learning Has Changed The Landscape of Traditional Education

I grew up in the eighties. I loved school. Well, for a while anyway. I had a third-grade teacher who differentiated our spelling words each week, all of us working on words specific to us. I […]

Mastery Learning – The Basics

Mastery Learning Doesn’t Have to be scary. A lot of times when I talk about Mastery Learning with teachers, I can see them slowly start back away and sometimes even getting noticeably scared. I’ll be honest, […]

Four Emerging Trends in Education to Keep An Eye On

I have often heard the adage, “In education, what’s old is new again.” While this is true of some initiatives, I’ve been in education long enough to know these strategies are improved upon as they come […]

Digital Tools in the Classroom

With the rise of technology in the classroom, teachers have practically unlimited methods for teaching, assigning, and grading student work. Features within forums such as Google Classroom, Flocabulary, Read180 Universal, PowToon and NewsELA allow for student […]

The Thrill of Breaking Out

Sixty minutes remaining. I started the count-down on my phone as the bell rang announcing the start of French three. All around the room posters of futuristic cars, bioluminescent animals and locked boxes were positioned, poised, […]

College Readiness is No Excuse for Bad Teaching

What about college readiness? I hear this from time to time during workshops as we discuss things like lesson structure, homework, grading, student ownership, or even multiple attempts on assignments. Whenever an educator wants to continue […]

Design Thinking Adds Excitement to Group Work

As education stands at the moment, exams are part of the curriculum. While this might change in the future, for the moment we as teachers need to ready our students for the stress and slog of […]

Are You Ready to Go Bold School?

“When the expertise and wisdom of the teacher is given equal weight in the blended learning equation, that is bold school” (Kieschnick, p.21). Recently, I had the honor of meeting and talking with Weston Kieschnick, senior […]

Group Work: How to Make it Work For Everyone

Cooperative learning, collaborative strategies, group rotations—whatever we decide to call it, the research behind group work in the classroom makes a strong case for embracing collaborative learning. As beneficial as it is, however, group work can […]