Student Engagement Do you feel like you have to practically put on a circus to achieve student engagement with your lessons? Before you bring out the lions, tigers, and bears, take a step back and see if one of these small changes might be the missing piece in your student engagement puzzle. Make It “Doable”…
Teacher Humor {{{SIIIIGGHHH}}} It’s been too long… definitely time for another installment of teacher humor! So we all know the student who is sure they’re being ever-so-helpful by SHHHHing the rest of the class with a force only know to cat-5 hurricanes. There are many classroom mysteries. Maybe you’ve encountered this one. If I…
Ideas for teaching math fact fluency strategies in first and second grade. A Continuum of Math Strategies Math strategies develop along a continuum (see the dashboard above). We teachers can build students’ mathematical power by recognizing where they are on the strategy continuum, and helping them to move toward the most efficient strategies.The Institute…
What should I read next? Looking for something new to read? Get a picture book recommendation based on which classics you (or your class) know and love! Whether you’re into the silly monkey antics of Curious George, the sequential style of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, or the imaginative adventure of Where the…
Teacher Humor All of today’s teacher memes are inspired by the crazy stuff students do. Take this first one; do you know who I’m talking about? That kid who you swear was to your left but then you look up and he’s suddenly to your right. The next time you look up he’s…
Teacher Performance Pay When my last school started talking about implementing performance pay for teachers, it put a knot in my stomach. I imagined that test scores would be the main, perhaps only, means for measuring teacher performance. While student academic growth (even if not on grade level) is one mark of teacher quality there…
Printmaking for Kids I’m always looking for kids’ art projects that really look like art and this is a good one. Printmaking allows kids to use paper and paint in a new way! Materials: paper tempera paints plastic page protectors cotton balls clothespins Sharpie markers (optional) 1. Draw big outlines of flowers and leaves on pieces…
Mixed Up Chameleon Craft If your students love The Mixed Up Chameleon by Eric Carle then this is the perfect craft for them. Students cut out different animal parts from old magazines and put them together to make a new mixed up animal. It also includes a template for writing about what the animal would…
Mother’s Day Craft Life as a teacher is definitely easier when you have all your students’ moms on your side! Click the picture to pick up an easy and fun bath salts craft you can have students make for Mother’s Day.
You may have seen the news article going around right now about things that 3rd graders wish their teacher knew. In response, here are several things that I wish my students knew. I bet you could add several of your own. I wish my students knew: -I don’t like all this testing either.…