Blog
Promoting Authentic Engagement and Active Learning Opportunities
Around the midpoint of the school year, it is often a time to pause, reflect, and recharge. We must not lose sight that each student can achieve at high levels. It is our job as educators to bring out the best in every child and motivate each to learn. Have you ever pondered if your…
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“Raising The Roof:” Using Pop Music to Build Content Understanding
“Raising The Roof:” Using Pop Music to Build Content Understanding What kind of music motivates you? What does it motivate you to do? Sing? Dance? Think? Connect with others? Each of these actions (well, especially the last two) are the kinds of things we see students engage in each day in our classrooms. Yet, we…
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Unlocking Every Learner’s Potential
Every classroom is unique. Each group of students brings different skills, interests, and needs, which can make planning, instruction, and assessment feel like a constant balancing act. As educators, it’s our responsibility to meet every student where they are. This means becoming adept at scaffolding and differentiation. To tailor our teaching effectively, we start by…
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Creating an Engaging Learning Environment: Strategies for New Teachers
As a beginning teacher, it is necessary to understand how creating an engaging learning environment is crucial for students. When learners feel connected to their environment, they are more likely to participate actively, retain information, and develop critical thinking skills. An engaging atmosphere encourages curiosity, collaboration, and creativity, making learning not just a task, but…
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Strategic Review Tactics: Purposeful Strategies for End-of-Year Success
Preparing students for the end-of-year assessments is a massive endeavor for all educators. Teachers have worked hard all year to arm their students with the skills essential for success, and the final hurdle is right around the corner. Every year during this time, teachers seek strategies to be the cornerstone of well-balanced review sessions. However,…
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Lesson Planning: Being an Efficient Planner to Meet Students’ Needs
To focus our efforts on being an efficient planner, preparing effective lesson plans provide a framework and process for engaging and challenging all students while allowing flexibility to accommodate their unique needs. “Teachers are expected to assimilate and integrate dozens of individually worthy, yet disparate ideas…These may be fine ideas but without some scheme for…
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Building Relationships: Maximizing Your Coaching Experience
As you begin the new school year, you are likely setting up your classroom, preparing lessons and attending more meetings than you can count! You are also meeting coaches and building support staff, that will help guide your teaching this school year. This blog will help you identify the many coaching roles within a school…
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How a Growth Mindset Can Help Students Flourish This Spring
Spring is a season of renewal, a chance for growth; the weather grows warmer, the days grow longer, and the flowers grow faster. This time of year also marks an opportunity for teachers and students alike to refresh their mindsets, a chance for a Spring renewal within the classroom. Image by pch.vector on Freepik To…
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Why Every Class Needs Read Alouds: The Importance of Reading to Students of All Ages and Stages
“Reading aloud is important from infancy through the high school years. Families and teachers can create and continue a tradition, introduce and reinforce the pleasures of reading, and, as children get older, set the stage for meaningful conversations about numerous topics” -Derry Koralek March was Read Aloud month and this month’s blog will celebrate and…
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Spring Into Engagement: Trying Something New to Impact Student Learning
The early winter months of a school year tend to zap the energy out of teachers and students alike. Many school calendars have fewer breaks in the weeks between the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and Spring Break. It is during this time that we find ourselves settled into a steady routine of planning, instruction,…
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