Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a well-behaved class always? Having good relationships with your students could eliminate 90% of the issues, but there will still be the 10% that requires classroom management. As a new teacher who is starting out or if you are switching grades, you will need a classroom management plan. Perhaps you already have a plan, but it’s not working that well, then you need ideas how to adapt it to an effective classroom management plan. […]
Category: Techniques
The Supermuch Classroom For A Supermuch Life
#Supermuch started by accident in January, 2018 at a CUE Rockstar TOSA camp in Agoura Hills, California. As two of my co-presenters (Ann Kozma and Cate Tolnai) and I were getting into the car to head to the event, I attempted to say, “I am super excited for this weekend!” What came out of my mouth was, “I am supermuch excited for this weekend!” We shared a good laugh and started describing everything about the rest of the car ride as #supermuch. We determined […]
SMART Goals Template
The below ‘S.M.A.R.T.’ template is published under Creative Commons. Feel free to share on your own blog, school site or social network. Over a 150 years ago, Abraham Lincoln said “a goal set properly is halfway reached.” However, it’s harder to set a actionable goal rather than express a feeling or dream about the future. The attached SMART Goals Worksheet can be used to help set a goal that is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time bound. Utilizing this framework, […]
When Your Child Doesn’t Like to Read
“I just can’t get her to read!” I often hear protests like this from parents when I suggest that their child read more for fun. Because it’s an important lifelong habit that I want my students to cultivate and because I know reading more will have a huge impact on their success in school, I encourage parents to become proactive whenever their children don’t read outside what’s required for class. Once a child hits the middle or upper elementary school […]
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 of “must-have,” “should-have,” “good-to-have,” and “nice-to have.” This instrument also identifies deficits in functional skills that might be the root cause of maladaptive behaviors. In this way, educators, therapists, caretakers, and parents can prioritize skills on an education or service plan according to how […]
7 Of The Best Screencasting Software Tools For Classrooms
Sometimes it’s just quicker and easier to show someone an idea or concept rather than try to say it to them. Other situations demand that you present an idea in multiple formats. I know when I was in school (back in ancient, rotary-phone days), it would have been really helpful if my teacher could have sent me home with a recording of exactly how she tackled the example calculus problem. That way, I could have watched and re-watched her instructions at […]
“If You Could Change One Thing” – Education Experts Share Their Thoughts
As our society ages, and bureaucratic ossification creeps into our lives more often, we often need to remind ourselves change can be good. I took that to heart this month. During April, I decided to try something new. Our writers possess so much intellectual and experience-driven firepower waiting to be tapped, yet I’ve never really asked them a “big-thinking” question. I wanted to ask them a question that should be near and dear to anyone that cares about students and […]
Your Chime: Helping Children Regain Control Through Mindfulness
I’m a big believer that everyone can benefit from practicing mindfulness. While there are some differences in what that means to different groups, all generally agree it involves taking time out of the day to calm the mind and concentrate on experiencing and living in the here and now – not the past, nor the future (both of which are really constructs created in our head anyway). This act of “clearing the mental decks” helps me to live life with […]
Student Engagement in the Digital Classroom
Growing up, our generation did not use words like ‘Google’ or ‘Siri’. We were the pioneers of the tech era. We played Oregon Trail, asked Jeeves questions for our research, and waited for hours while Napster downloaded our favorite music. Now, children are digital natives. Children as young as two are utilizing iPads, exploring the apps on smartphones, and accessing the internet. How do we teachers keep up with this fast-moving generation who can navigate technology at breakneck speeds? And […]
3 Ways Leaders Can Flip Staff Meetings For More Authentic Growth
We’ve all sat in those meetings wondering why on earth we are still debating what color to paint the staff restroom. So maybe not that exact debate, but something equally inconsequential in the lives of students and staff. I remember going to monthly whole-staff meetings as a classroom teacher. They would usually begin with housekeeping items, then sometimes there would be an article to read and discuss. Other times there would be data to analyze. But at the end of […]
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 end of year exams. This means the dreaded revision period is inevitable. What’s worse than cranking out an essay on Shakespeare? Rehashing it again and again to prepare yourself for rehashing it under time constraints in an exam. That’s what revision time has felt […]
The Rise of the Fidget Spinner: What, Where, When, and How
Anyone outside of the education realm, or who does not regularly interact with children, might assume that a fidget spinner is some sort of spaceship contraption or an obscure item found on the shelves of a home improvement store. However, teachers, parents and, of course, children know all too well what a fidget spinner is—and we know that you will likely hear one before you will see one. Silly dramatics aside, the fidget spinner has swiftly entered classrooms and become […]
![Appreciating What, Where and How Boys Read [Infographic]](http://fractus-855d.kxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Boys-Read-copy1-e1496237958433.jpeg)
Appreciating What, Where and How Boys Read [Infographic]
Unfortunately for many boys, what gets in their way of reading for pleasure are very well-intentioned adults who try to steer them in the “right” direction. That’s why the greatest gift we can give boys this season is an appreciation of their reading preferences! Using and Viewing the Graphic The above infographic is published under Creative Commons. Click here to download a PDF or here to download the full-size image file. Feel free to share on your own blog, school site […]
Is The Next John Glenn or Neil Armstrong Sitting In Your Class? Encouraging The Next Generation Of Space Explorers
Within all of us, there lies a desire to explore. It can be as simple as trying a new cuisine or as complicated as diving into the depths of an ocean to see the vibrant colors of coral reefs. It drives us to push past our comfort zones and reach for the stars. Learning how to harness the innate need to pioneer new frontiers in our students can be difficult at times, perhaps even overwhelming. Each year we are faced […]
Fading or Thriving In Sport? The Mental Approach That Shapes Healthy & Happy Champions Of Tomorrow
Over the past few years, there has been an increase in visits to my office by parents with young athletes between 11–13 years of age. At first, this seemed like a positive movement, perhaps motivated by a desire to introduce mental skills training to help their children get ahead. However, there is one glaring dilemma across all these cases that is not so positive. These children are not thriving. Parents describe this as a change from enjoying their sport and […]
Developing A Conceptual Understanding of Maths with GeoGebra
Teaching for conceptual understanding is one of the strong themes running through many articles on this site. There is a world of difference between students being able to “do mathematics” and students understanding the mathematics they are “doing”. Tweet It is clearly advantageous for learners to be both proficient in mathematics as well as to understand the mathematics conceptually. As is argued by many commentators, simply practicing routines is not an effective way to develop conceptual understanding. However, there are […]
The Word of the Day Podcast—A New Way to Inspire Language Learners
To expand on a popular saying: Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll pass a fishing test and then forget how because he wasn’t all that into fishing in the first place. Inspire a love for fishing, and he’ll fish for a lifetime. I think most teachers want to get their students to that third stage—where learning is no longer a trial, but a game, an endeavor, a creative […]
Recess Rules!! And Why Kids Need MORE of It!
“For generations, recess has been considered by many students in elementary school as their favorite part of the day.” Recess is a cornerstone of childhood. For many children, it’s a breath of fresh air, an opportunity for pretend play, a chance to socialize with peers. Despite the documented benefits of playtime, many children in the United States receive less than twenty minutes of recess. If researchers, educators, parents—and of course, students—agree that recess is great for kids, why are so […]
Teaching the Power of Adaptability: How to be more like the Rubber Band and less like the Twist Tie
It was a weekday night much like any other in my house. Pick up the kids, arrange them at the dining room table to work on homework while I try and cobble together something for dinner as my husband finishes the last of his work calls. Like most nights, this one was not without its share of tears and frustrated little fists curling together over and over again as my six- and eight-year-old tried to slog their way through another […]
The 6 Reading-Habit Initiator Personalities (Hint: Only 1 Transforms Boys into Readers)
There was a time early in my 20+ year teaching career when I didn’t plan ahead or think about what aliterate preteen/early teen boys needed from me to become self-directed readers. I truly believed that if I provided quality reading instruction and time to read, plus access to and choice in what books they wanted to read and where they wanted to sit, boys would be so happy and appreciative, they’d just hunker down and do it. Yeah, well not […]