“Why do we need to learn this?”
Do you hear this a lot in your high school classrooms? That’s because, according to author of Beat Boredom, Martha Sevetson Rush, high school students demand relevance—they check out if they don’t see the point of what they’re learning—and she believes that there’s no better way to provide relevance than by giving them authentic tasks.
Finding the joy in learning might be more important than ever right now. Luckily, Katie Egan Cunningham wrote a whole book about how to teach in a way that taps into what makes your students happy, and how starting every day with that joy will propel them toward meaningful and memorable learning.
One of the many issues we face moving forward is how we assess and grade student learning during quarantine. If the playbook for grading and assessment was tossed out the window some time ago, what do we do in its place?
By Amanda Jansen, author of Rough Draft Math, along with Megan Wickstrom and Derek Williams
Whenever we learn anything new, bringing a spirit of rough drafting to the process can open us up to be more free to try on new ideas. We can ask students to share their first drafts, then we can discuss the ideas as a class to provide new insights on the drafts. During these discussions, it’s helpful to maintain a stance of curiosity and seeking to understand rather than judgment while we help each other’s ideas evolve. Students can then revise their initial thinking and document how their thinking shifted.
In this episode of Teacher’s Corner we talk to educator, author, and parent, Whitney La Rocca about how she is adjusting to remote learning, social distancing, and homeschooling—all while trying to stay positive and connected, but also giving herself permission to lament her pre-COVID routine. Here she is talking to Faye LaCasse, Vice President of Marketing at Stenhouse.
The amount of information out there right now for educators can be a little overwhelming. Hopefully, by providing one place to find meaningful resources by trusted experts, it will make navigating these uncharted waters a little easier.
Here is a list of resources from our dedicated authors who have been very busy creating all types of useful ways to provide educators with anything they might need. This list will be updated frequently, so bookmark it and keep checking in to see what's new!
Stories are told through mood. This means that being able to understand how characters feel and why they feel that way is essential to comprehending narratives. Understanding a character's mood helps put you directly into the heart of a story.
It's more important than ever to give yourself time to practice self-care. Here's a chapter from Lisa Lucas's Practicing Presence that includes a Work Stress Self-Assessment and ideas on how to lower that stress. Click the image below.
Do you feel prepared to initiate and facilitate meaningful, productive dialogues about race in your classroom? Are you looking for practical strategies to engage with your students?
On its surface, Early Childhood Math Routines by Antonia Cameron is a resource made up of 5- to 10-minute, easy-to-use, play-based routines designed to develop young children’s reasoning skills in mathematics and communication. But at the heart of this book is a philosophy about teaching and learning. It's about developing people who can communicate their ideas clearly, who own their ideas and aren't afraid to express them—who know how to be part of a community of learners.