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Creating a Culture of Questioning: Inquiry in Lower Elementary
Editor's Note: This is the third of seven blogs from our friends at the Right Question Institute (RQI) and the teachers that have utlized their methods and strategies. You can read the introduction and overview of the series here. This piece will take you through two teachers' experience from identifying the
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Keeping A Proactive Management Mentality
Many teachers are resigned to one unfortunate truth: minor misbehavior happens in every classroom. No matter how hard you try, there will always be an unruly student or two to derail your carefully crafted lesson. But what if you could develop a set of moves that would stop disruptive behavior
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My QFT Journey: Putting Students’ Minds into Motion with Their Questions
Editor's Note: This is the second of seven blogs from our friends at the Right Question Institute and the teachers that have utlized their methods and strategies. You can read the introduction and overview of the series here.
I’m proud to serve as the U.S. history teacher at the Gus Garcia
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4 Affordable Ideas for Teacher Summer and Vacation Travel
Editor's Note: Lillie Marshall has graciously shared her travel photos with us in the blog below. If you'd like to learn more about where the pictures were taken, click the links in the caption.
Sometimes all it takes to get us through the most challenging days of the school year is
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Sparking Joy in the Classroom with Student-Formulated Questions
Editor's Note: This is the first of seven blogs from our friends at the Right Question Institue (RQI), a nonprofit educational organization. RQI makes it possible for all people to learn to ask better questions and participate more effectively in key decisions. Their free, easy to use resources have techniques for formulating
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Start with Art!
Most often I use this column to adapt an existing lesson that has been shared on Tch for a Special Education classroom. I want to share one of my favorite ways to begin the day. I call it “Start with Art” and it’s about as simple of a conversation starter
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First Five: Early Career Action Pack
92 percent of teachers assigned a mentor their first year returned the next year, and 86 percent were on the job by the fifth year (U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Educational Statistics, 2015).
Teachers in their first three to five years of the profession who are satisfied with their preparation
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Spark Motivation in Your Students with Success Criteria
Think about a time when you were learning something. Did you know where you were going in the learning progression? Did you understand the outcome?
Nancy Frey, Douglas Fisher, Olivia Amador, and Joseph Assof (2018), authors of The Teacher Clarity Playbook, compare learning and outcomes to a pilot flying a plane.
“Imagine
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Who Can Teachers Trust? The Search for High Quality Curriculum
We've all experienced it — the power of Google to display before us a dizzying array of choices: items for purchase from companies you’ve never heard of, articles and blogs on any topic from sources that run the gamut from highly reputable to downright odd. The world of online curriculum
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Talking Across Political Differences
“Part of our job is to teach young people how to talk with one another, especially with people who have differing views.” -- Diana Hess
What does it mean to carry out these jobs, and, in particular, what does it mean in today’s complex political climate?
Today we are more divided along
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Could You Teach If Words Lost All Meaning?
Imagine you step into your classroom tomorrow and all the kids were strangers and none of them spoke English.
I had the immense honor of being asked to travel to Bangladesh to meet some of the first special education teachers in the country. Asha Inc., a non-profit organization, supports several schools
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Own It! Investing Students in Their Own Language Goals
There’s always such a positive energy at the start of the school year. As teachers, we know where we want to go and where we want to take our students. So much is possible. As the year progresses, it’s not uncommon for that enthusiasm to wane. Getting students invested in
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Where Have All the Phonics Gone?
Walk into any classroom and observe the language arts instruction that's taking place. What do you notice about the teaching and learning? Do you see small group reading instruction, whole group reading instruction, paired reading, or independent reading time? Do you see children completing language arts worksheets or interacting in
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Adapting a Poster Lesson for Students at Any Level
Editor's Note: We've asked Special Education teacher Brett Bigham to look at videos in Tch's library and tell us how he would adapt them for the wide range of learning abilities seen in today's classrooms. Click on his picture to the left to see the full list of blogs in
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Helping Parents Understand How They Can Support Their Child in PBL
Building community connections is an ongoing challenge that almost every school faces; albeit time, trust, capital, knowledge, resources, language — there are so many barriers to building a bridge between the school and the surrounding community. One way that we can chip away at these barriers in an effort to build an
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How to Make the Most of Your First Days Back
Students fear it. Teachers dread it. Let’s face it: nobody looks forward to going back to school after the holidays. Classrooms are filled with cranky, overstimulated students who seem to have forgotten the most basic tenets of learning — and that can be a big demotivator for teachers.
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“Just in Time” Promising Practices For Educators By Educators
In New York City, a team of folks are gathering promising practices from all over town and providing peeks into classrooms to observe, learn, and garner new ideas. Take a look at the videos below and let us know what you think in the comments, we'd love to hear your
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Move Over Debate, It’s Time to Deliberate
Do you find yourself shying away from political dialogue or even avoiding it at all costs these days? If so, you’re not alone. In fact, 53% of Americans say talking about politics with people they disagree with is “generally stressful and frustrating” (Pew Research Center, 2018).
And it can feel even
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Using Line-Up Time for Extra Learning Opportunities
Editor's Note: We've asked Special Education teacher Brett Bigham to look at videos in Tch's library and tell us how he would adapt them for the wide range of learning abilities seen in today's classrooms. Click on his picture to the left to see the full list of blogs in
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Bridging the Home-School PBL Connection: 5 Wins When Involving Parents
As an educator, I like many of you, have been so pleased to see the recent focus on addressing the holistic needs of children through Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). The push in recent research and resources related to SEL reminds us that students have so many more needs than what our
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Monster Match: Using Art to Improve Writing
Editor's Note: We've asked Special Education teacher Brett Bigham to look at videos in Tch's library and tell us how he would adapt them for the wide range of learning abilities seen in today's classrooms. Click on his picture to the left to see the full list of blogs in
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Partnering with Parents in PBL: 4 Communication Tips for Teachers
As a PBL teacher I learned many things the hard way; one of which was communicating with parents. Truth be told I was exhausted by designing projects, creating daily lesson plans, and then being fully present for students when they were alongside me all day. I almost always ran out
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Tch Tips: 4 Ways to Integrate Civic Learning Throughout the Year
Are you trying to figure out how to extend your students’ interest and engagement in democracy beyond the midterm elections? Elections are exciting, but staying informed and participating in our democracy is important to do year round. In fact, if we only teach about civics and politics before elections, we
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Neighborhood Signs
Editor's Note: Niamh K., a student in Janelle Bence's freshman English class, is one of three students who have written and graciously allowed us to publish their thougths about the midterm elections. Their assignment was to take a 30-minute walk around their neighborhoods, take pictures of the political signs they came across,
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Texas’ Political Signs
Editor's Note: Emma Mathis, a student in Janelle Bence's freshman English class, is one of three students who have written and graciously allowed us to publish their thougths about the midterm elections. Their assignment was to take a 30-minute walk around their neighborhoods, take pictures of the political signs they came across,