This post is the second in a series on my lesson planning process. I teach 5th grade Language Arts and Social Studies in Baltimore County, Maryland. The first part of this series was on long-range planning in a post called, “The Process of Planning: 3
There is an infamous activity that teachers have done with students where they ask them to ‘draw a scientist’ and students of all ages will usually draw a white male in a lab coat. If we were to ask educators, ‘Who is an educational leader?’,
Oscar Wilde once wrote “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” Imagine what he’d think today with the overwhelming amount of digital information at everyone’s fingertips. Inside student-led, inquiry-based classrooms, teachers know that building digital literacy and media skills deserves focused attention. While our students
At its essence, standards-based learning is simple. We set learning targets for our students, determine where they are in relation to those targets, and then do everything we can to help them reach or go beyond those targets. Standards-based grading and reporting is equally as
Our last blogpost introduced characteristics of the new cohort of educators that is joining the teaching workforce this year: Gen Z. In that post, we revealed easy ways to attract, retain, develop, and engage this global generation of teachers. Here follow a few more Z-friendly
Last weekend my husband and I began shopping for a mattress. We bounced on mattresses, laid down on mattresses, pushed buttons so our head or our feet would go up and down on mattresses. We tried out mattress after mattress, going from store to store
In my work helping school leaders lead change, one of the biggest challenges a leader and their team often faces is the behavioral shift required to build and nurture the human ability to change. Many schools and districts are working on implementing strategic plans that
My friend, who is also a teacher (because let’s face it… most of my friends are also teachers and I bet you can relate), asked me if I wanted to do some long-range planning together some time before September. She is a 4th grade Language
“It took me years to realize that assessment, particularly what I do in the area of classroom assessment isn’t some stand-alone ‘other thing’ I am supposed to be doing as required by my school’s supervisor. Hello, why didn’t anyone tell me?” —Fourth-Grade Teacher When we say
Educational Absurdity As I begin my twelfth year as a teacher, I find myself reflecting on the more absurd aspects of the profession—those practices that are continually implemented despite their demonstrable ineffectiveness—and how they are perhaps most prevalent in the teaching of literacy. The English Language