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5 Common Teaching Practices I’m Kicking to the Curb
Are any of these ineffective teaching methods still part of your practice? Time to reconsider. So many of us teach the way we were taught. We may not even realize we’re doing it. And that means...
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Should My Child Skip Kindergarten?
“Break from my tamagotchi” by David D is licensed under CC BY 2.0 Dear Jennifer, My daughter recently started kindergarten, and I’m thinking about moving her up to first grade. She is already a...
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Letter to an Overachiever
Dear Soul Mate, I call you this because I know you. I know the thoughts that run through your head, because they are mine. And I have been buried lately. I have learned a few lessons, and I thought...
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What’s so great about Google Drive? And why should my students be using it?
I have fallen in love with Google Drive. But it was not love at first sight. Our relationship was slow to get started. First, Google Drive was like the guy you know for a while as a friend. You...
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What It’s Like to Be an Instructional Coach
It was only a few years ago that I first heard the term instructional coach. When I was in the K-12 setting, we had no such thing, at least as far as I knew. But it seems lately I hear more and more...
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The Big List of Class Discussion Strategies
Listen to this article as a podcast episode: When I worked with student teachers on developing effective lesson plans, one thing I always asked them to revise was the phrase “We will discuss.”...
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Teaching as a Second Career: Getting the Job
“Application – pen” by Flazingo Photos is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 Dear Jennifer, I’ll take any and all advice connected to finding a first teaching job for a person who is older and career...
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4 Things I’ve Learned About Teaching from CrossFit
Listen to this article as a podcast: This past summer, my husband asked me to go to a CrossFit gym with him. He was looking for something different, something that would motivate him to exercise...
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Self-Paced Learning: How One Teacher Does It
With few exceptions, I would bet that most teachers feel they could be doing a better job of differentiating instruction. It’s not that we don’t want to do it—we know our students learn at different...
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Classroom Eye Candy: A Flexible-Seating Paradise
Several weeks ago, I posted an article on my Facebook page about student fidgeting and the advantages of flexible seating. One teacher who commented was high school teacher Rebecca Malmquist, who...
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When a Principal Whips and Nae Naes
I can only imagine the noise that must have erupted from students at Hodson Elementary the day their principal, Kerwin Koerner, walked onto the gym floor and started doing the Whip Nae Nae. “I had...
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How to Make a Quiz Work Harder for You
When you give a test or quiz, do you basically just grade it, give it back to students, go over the answers, then move on? If you don’t do anything else with the information, if you don’t look...
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How and Why We Should Let Our Students Fail
The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed by Jessica Lahey 304 pages, Harper, August 2015 Buy Now The links in this post are Amazon Affiliate links....
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How to Turn Rubric Scores into Grades
I have written several posts about the different types of rubrics—especially my favorite, the single-point rubric—and over time, many teachers have asked me about the most effective way to convert...
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A Parent’s Dilemma: Extra Math or Electives with Friends?
“boy, with homework” by woodleywonderworks is licensed under CC BY 2.0 Hi Jennifer, I am the parent of a 6th grader. My son is a great boy and student. I like to say with every child there are...
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5 Common Teaching Practices I’m Kicking to the Curb
Are any of these ineffective teaching methods still part of your practice? Time to reconsider. Special Announcement: This post has been named as a finalist for the 2015 SmartBrief Educators’...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Should My Child Skip Kindergarten?
“Break from my tamagotchi” by David D is licensed under CC BY 2.0 Dear Jennifer, My daughter recently started kindergarten, and I’m thinking about moving her up to first grade. She is already a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Letter to an Overachiever
Dear Soul Mate, I call you this because I know you. I know the thoughts that run through your head, because they are mine. And I have been buried lately. I have learned a few lessons, and I thought...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What’s so great about Google Drive? And why should my students be using it?
I have fallen in love with Google Drive. But it was not love at first sight. Our relationship was slow to get started. First, Google Drive was like the guy you know for a while as a friend. You...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What It’s Like to Be an Instructional Coach
It was only a few years ago that I first heard the term instructional coach. When I was in the K-12 setting, we had no such thing, at least as far as I knew. But it seems lately I hear more and more...
View Article