Blog
Remote Learning Idea #2: Using Quotes to Inspire and Guide Writing
Listen This is the second in our series that is attempting to provide ideas to use for remote learning during the current pandemic and beyond. These are simple activities that can be used in a variety of ways, and our goal is to provide everything you need to take and...
8 Tips for Teaching Classes Online
Listen UPDATE 2: 3/14/2020, 5:30 P.M. The free version of Zoom is back up and in order. UPDATE: (3/13/2020, 12:31 P.M.) We recommended Zoom below as a free service, but in the past 12 hours, we’ve become aware that their free services are temporarily suspended because they are overwhelmed...
Tips for Combating Student Anxiety
Listen Childhood has always been filled with stressors, but recent studies show that childhood anxiety is on the rise. The Child Mind Institute says that 30% of children now experience significant anxiety, although many of these children never receive treatment. The CDC says that the number of diagnoses increased from...
Breaking Down Language Barriers
Listen Imagine being a five-year-old again. Imagine that you have been living with extended relatives all of your life, and one day they put you on a plane and send you halfway around the world to meet your parents in another country. Imagine being brought to a school the following...
Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD)
Listen What Is ODD? Oppositional Defiance Disorder is a behavioral disorder. According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms include persistent angry or irritable moods, extreme defiance for authority figures, frequent need to argue, and vindictiveness. Students with ODD most often deal with other disorders simultaneously and in addition to ODD. Frequent...
Using Curriculum in the Elementary Classroom
Listen A curriculum is what you make of it. Unfortunately, no one really tells teachers in most districts what to make of curriculum. Few schools tell you how much or how often to use it, and even fewer tell you exactly how. When you adopt a new curriculum, there is...
Important Daily Math Routines for Pre-K Through 2nd Grade
Listen Just as literacy requires daily interaction with a variety of specified information and practice utilizing that information, so does math. With one or two short, intentional math interactions each day, you can help your students build vital math skills that last a lifetime. Remember, studies show that all children...
Pro Tips for Integrating Social Studies into Other Subjects
Listen Social Studies is one of the most misunderstood and underappreciated subjects for many teachers, which is unfortunate because social studies is a goldmine for ELAR, LOTE, math, science, and fine arts integration. There are so many things that can be taught and expanded upon with information in social studies. ...
Important Daily Language Routines for Pre-K
Listen Why? You may already have many routines established in your early childhood classroom, but do you know why you’re doing each thing? It’s an important question to ask yourself (and possibly the teachers around you). Some of the traditions and routines we’ve used for years just aren’t developmentally appropriate...
New Elementary Substitute Survival Guide
Listen Substitutes are incredibly vital members of the school district community. A good substitute is a teacher’s absolute best friend. While many teachers will leave work for the students to do and lessons for you to teach while they are gone, for the first few times you sub, they may...
Helping Underachieving Students: In Middle and High School
Listen It can be so frustrating to have a student in class who you know can be doingmuch better than they actually are. It may be that the student started the yearstrong and something happened to them personally that made them start to slackoff. For some it could be caused...
Goal-Setting with Young Students (Pre-K through 2nd Grade)
Listen Goals are like a road map. Setting and achieving goals are important life skills, and people aren’t born knowing how to do it. Many of the most successful people in the world rely on setting goals as motivation and a way to harness self-direction. Teaching children to set goals,...