Contrary to all advice educators receive about timely and high quality feedback, I have an alternate hypothesis. Most mistakes children make are the result not of a misconception they have about mathematics but instead the student has a totally coherent conception that is the result
Welcome to school! As teachers, each year and each class brings new joys and challenges as we get to know our students as people and as learners. We are faced with the often-daunting task of designing learning experiences to entice and excite our students to
I made it clear to students the first day that I hoped and expected to learn as much from them as they might learn from me. I explained that I had come from a previous role as an advocate of student voice and student decision
I have been a trombone player since fourth grade, and I have played off and on for the better part of four decades. Though I wouldn’t consider myself truly an expert, I know quite a bit about how to play the trombone. I have played
Mr. Jones clocks in at 6:45 a.m. and enters his classroom. It is the start of the third week of the new school year. On today’s agenda: a school assembly in the morning, a genius hour after lunch, and students will be finishing their science
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
As the summer winds down and back-to-school sales pop up in stores, teachers everywhere are preparing for the beginning of a new year. This is an exciting time for both students and teachers—the excitement of a new year, new classes, new possibilities. It’s like starting
In The Wizard of Oz (1939), Dorothy’s little black dog, Toto, pulls back the curtain revealing not an imposing and powerful Wizard, but a kind, gentle man. Just as the journey to see the Wizard was depicted as frightening and intimidating in the film, so
Should PBL be the main course or the dessert? A long-standing axiom of PBL is that the placement of the methodology is critical to enabling students to learn content and skills at high levels and to emulate the "real world." PBL promotes authenticity by giving students the opportunities