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
We all know that teacher-student relationships are one of the biggest predictors of student success. Actually, it’s been reported that teachers that have strong relationships with their students have 31 percent fewer behavioral issues (Marzano, 2003). That’s right, 31 percent. However, let’s take a minute to
Early in my career as a high school English teacher, I learned the importance of building relationships with my students. I discovered that in order for me to teach and learn with my students, I had to build a dialogic, which would allow me to
Today I yelled at a 9 year old. He was ignoring me over and over again. He rolled his eyes at me. He laughed at me. And I snapped. I yelled at him. I yelled at him loud and I embarrassed him. It was during my dismissal
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is a common condition that every teacher will most likely encounter in the classroom during his or her career. In fact, estimates place the number of school-aged kids who have an ADHD diagnosis at about 11%, or about 1
Sometimes we all need little reminders to keep a growth mindset. Here’s some food for thought about making one slight adjustment to dramatically increase engagement in our classrooms. When I was a first and second year classroom teacher, I spent the first weeks of school making