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Teacher Appreciation Gifts To Treat Yourself and Your Colleagues
Teacher Appreciation Week is May 7-11, 2018
The school year may be winding down, but spring is definitely one of the most stressful times of the year for teachers. So what better time to show our love and admiration for the special and amazing teachers in our lives? It’s also the
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Tch Tips: How to Keep Going Even When You Feel Like You Can’t
Making Teaching More Manageable
We all have days (or weeks, or months) when we feel like we can’t keep teaching. Often these times come at the end of the year, when we’re exhausted and overwhelmed. The good news is that sometimes small tweaks can make all the difference, giving you the
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Win All of Our Favorite Things!
Here at Tch, our goal is to appreciate teachers all day, every day. This Teacher Appreciation Week, we want to give you what you really need: more time and more energy, plus opportunities to relax, splurge, and learn. Sounds good, right?!
Here’s what we have in store for you this Teacher
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Integrating "How-To" Videos to Empower Student Learning
As adults, we often rely on people with practical knowledge to model procedures for certain tasks we intend to do on our own. This is why we sometimes turn to YouTube for guidance whenever we need to change a tire, assemble furniture, or roast a turkey. You may have even
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Tch April 2018 Rewind
In case you missed any of the great ideas we explored this month on Tchers’ Voice, let’s recap our awesome April lineup, filled with great ideas from passionate educators just like you!
Five New Videos
Educators Help Students Leverage the Power of Digital Civics
Tch Video Lounge: KLEWS for Learning Science Vocabulary
Tchers’ Voice Blog
Tch Tips,
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Hit the Ground Running Next Year: Free NGSS Course Opportunity!
Are you looking to kick-start the school year with a robust, vetted, and Next Generation Science Standards-designed unit?
If you’re teaching science in grades five through nine and are interested in learning about the Disruptions in Ecosystems Unit, receiving the printed materials, getting continuing education or graduate credit, and implementing Chapter
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How Many Days Are Left? 10 Tips to End the Year with Positivity and Purpose
Inevitably, when educators get to April or May, the question of “How many days are left?” is uttered frequently, and with so many different variations in tone.
There is the Freaked Out -- pure panic because “I still have so much material left to cover,” or “My kids are not ready
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The Power of Story for ELLs and Newcomers: Identity and Empathy
It’s the personal stories that are often lost in the conversations we have about immigrants and refugees. One personal story may seem insignificant; however, when the stories of nearly five million English Language Learners are absent from the education narrative in the United States, so is the context through which
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Getting Started with PBL: Do ONE Thing Really Well
How might we shift professional development so teachers have the space to focus on getting really good at ONE part of PBL at a time?
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End the Torture of Science Fairs
As a classroom teacher, I used to require all of my fourth and fifth grade students to complete a formal science fair presentation following the scientific process with a tri-fold board and a classroom competition. I made it a big deal and organized many school-wide science fairs with elaborate themes
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Literature, Identity, Agency: Civic Engagement in the Classroom
I was recently asked, “What is a current trend in education that has shaped your teaching?” My immediate response was civic engagement. Knowing the "why" of my praxis guides my choices in lesson design. As I ponder this question and my response more deeply, an unsettling feeling takes over.
How could
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Educators Help Students Leverage the Power of Digital Civics
We can all agree that most young people are frequent and savvy users of digital media and online tools. And we’ve all seen compelling and impressive examples of youth using these tools to make a change when it comes to issues that matter to them, such as Black Lives Matter,
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Combating the Chaos: 3 Cs for a Well-Managed Classroom
Combating the chaos of classroom management rests in understanding and honoring humanity in the classroom with connection, consistency, and compassion.
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Rethinking the Role of Teacher: 3 Practices to Elevate Student Engagement
I’d be very surprised to find a teacher that has fallen asleep at night thinking, “In what ways can I bore my students tomorrow?” However, school is changing -- and with it, so are the roles of teachers and students.
Rows of individual student desks with a teacher in the front
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Three Ways Digital Portfolios Shift Your Assessment Focus
“What gets measured is what gets done.”
I hear this mantra often in the educational world. While some people might read it and sigh, thinking about all the testing our kids have to go through, I see it differently.
Why accept the current frame, that assessment is a tool merely for evaluation?
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Eliciting Engagement with Earth Day Every Day
A couple of years ago, the FIRST LEGO League robotics theme was “Trash Trek.” That was the year that I decided to coach not one, but two teams of middle school students… by myself. After thinking long and hard about the challenge topic, the teams came up with two original
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The Adolescent Brain: A Big Gulp Of Executive Function
I wrote the book Attack of the Teenage Brain! Understanding and Supporting the Weird and Wonderful Adolescent Learner, because of an advocacy bias: as a neuroscientist, I felt educators should have detailed knowledge about a cognitive gadget called executive function (EF). The reason? The power it holds over the academic lives
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All-School Read: Building Community & Promoting Understanding
In the spring of 2017, our middle school experienced an eruption of racist slurs and hate speech, from swastikas drawn on the cheeks of unsuspecting students at lunch, to "KKK" mysteriously appearing on the Google image linked with our school's website. And we were not the only ones. Newspaper headlines
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Tch Video Lounge: KLEWS for Learning Science Vocabulary
Looking for a fun way to learn with colleagues? Come and check out Tch Video Lounge, where you can watch, interact, and discuss videos with the rest of the Teaching Channel community. We have over thirty videos in the lounge, with topics ranging from new teachers to instructional coaching.
In our
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Four Student-Centered Tips for Teaching with Technology
For many years, educators have used the SAMR model as a way to conceptualize technology integration. Districts and conferences alike have poured great amounts of money into training teachers to think about their planning through this lens.
In an effort to make expensive technology more than just a “$500 notebook,” this
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Tch Tips: Is Peer Teaching on Your Classroom Menu?
There’s no doubt that expectations for student achievement have increased exponentially over the past two decades. To help students meet these expectations, schools have shifted to more evidence-based strategies, like peer teaching.
Peer teaching isn’t a single strategy -- it is a full menu of learning techniques that can enhance student
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Elevating Teacher Practice: Introducing Our Newest Laureate, Meg Richard
Teaching is a rewarding profession on its own, but we also know the importance of elevating teachers that take initiative. The ones who put themselves out there and respond to the needs of their colleagues. Teachers like Meg Richard, a seventh grade science teacher at California Trail Middle School in Olathe,
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Reach Your Students With Poetry (No, Really!)
April is National Poetry Month, and unfortunately, poetry has a bit of an optics problem.
It’s hard! It’s confusing! It’s boring! I don’t get it!
Sound familiar?
Fear not, there are actually super-engaging ways to dazzle your students with the wonders of poetry -- and reach even your most struggling or reluctant students.
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Tch March 2018 Rewind
In case you missed any of the great ideas we explored this month on Tchers’ Voice, let’s recap our marvelous March lineup, filled with great ideas from passionate educators just like you!
Seven New Videos
Engaging Newcomers in Language and Content
Building a Strong Learning Community for Newcomer ELLs
Tch Talks Podcasts
Tch Talks 25: Project
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Is it Working? Measuring Students' Civic Learning
Are you integrating civic learning experiences into your classroom but unsure whether it’s working?
One common concern with civic education is that it’s often hard to determine whether it's really deepening students’ civic knowledge, capacities, and commitments.
Assessment is one way to identify, inform, and move toward deeper learning. Even though there