It’s that time of year again when leaders, educators, families, and students head back into the classroom bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready for a chance to “reset” after the past few long years. Our students need us more than ever. Now is the perfect time to
What do you value most as a math teacher? Imagine it’s the last day of this school year. You have one last chance to interview and collect data from your students about their experiences after a year in your math class. What questions would you ask
Teachers continue to be challenged on how to accommodate for the various learning differences of their individual students. Additionally, teachers may need added support in the translation and interpretation of various home languages when communicating with students’ parents and families in the classroom and during
For fifteen years I taught in a district that stood firmly on the premise that all teachers were teachers of reading. As a middle school math teacher, I was also given a reading block each day. As is often the case in ELA, my students
Are students as invested in learning as their teachers? Why is Student investment Important? When students are invested in learning, they report feeling engaged, hopeful, and able to navigate disappointments and failures to achieve their goals. When students become disenfranchised, they give up on learning and fail
Let the Students Become the Teachers The main premise of John Hattie’s Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement (2013) is that the most effective way for children to learn is for the teacher to guide students to become their own teachers.
Let’s be clear; being an educator is hard work. It is a profession driven and fueled by passion. It demands the very best people, and the very best from those people. It requires change that reflects the changes all around us. It requires consistency borne
I don’t hide the fact that I thought I was a “just fine” teacher that was considering quitting her job barely two years into a teaching career. I don’t hide the fact that I, like so many others, have been on a quest to find
In A League of Their Own, movie buffs might recall Tom Hanks shouting, “It’s the hard that makes it good!” when he admonished a discouraged baseball pitcher threatening to abandon the team. In our schools today, do students understand that it takes the hard work to
This post was originally published on Finding Common Ground. In a partnership…students work alongside teachers to own their learning and reach worthy goals. Is that really possible? It all depends on us. Students come equipped to discover, explore, and with innate talents for learning, and it’s our