Over the past five decades, few programs have been implemented as broadly or evaluated as thoroughly as those based on Benjamin’s Bloom’s model of mastery learning. Despite this thorough research base, many textbook authors, bloggers, and program developers frequently misrepresent mastery learning. To clarify questions
Student engagement may be a hot topic in school staff rooms and professional learning courses, but when was the last time you heard engagement being discussed in the classroom? I’m not talking about the kind of ‘pull your socks up or else’ behavior management messages.
Teacher training programs prepare teachers on most aspects of the profession ranging from curriculum design and up-to-date pedagogy to relationship building with students. Current events have also urged programs to include social justice issues relating to the classroom, equity, and student agency and identity. However,
More educators are talking about leaving the profession this year than ever before. Unfortunately, teachers were already searching for a way out, even before the COVID-19 pandemic began. Approximately half of new teachers in the United States leave the profession within the first five to
Veteran teachers know that routines are set procedures and practices they use frequently to help organize their classroom. When new teachers come into the classroom for the first time, they may learn to use classroom-management routines for taking attendance or having students distribute materials. In
One common formative assessment method is a whole-class Q&A session. Done right, it can provide you with valuable information; not done right, it can provide students a chance to zone out and/or misbehave. Let’s look at two techniques I use to randomly designate—to distribute turns equitably. Teachers'
“Are there any questions?” isn’t a reliable method to check student understanding. Teachers generally intend it to check student understanding, but consider it from a student’s point of view—especially an adolescent student. Here is an invitation to appear ignorant before your classmates. Here is a chance to show the world that whatever
Educators, you’ve been waiting for this moment for the past four (or five, or six) months: the return to your classroom. Home away from home. This is the platform where you thrive. While most of you likely can’t wait to get back to being in person, it may not
This is the number one question teachers have been asking me for the past three decades. You want to be able to differentiate and teach kids in small-group time, but how do you make sure the rest of the class is practicing the skills you’ve
By about this time of the year, most teachers have experienced the sensation of playing Whack-A-Mole: They keep addressing and re-addressing the students who aren’t quite where they should be when they should be, and then, by the time those students are in their places, other