Creating classrooms that are developmentally responsive, challenging, empowering, and equitable can be tricky considering most classrooms serve students with a wide range of abilities, from learning disabled to gifted...

Columbus (WI) Middle School students spent the first day of school with their homeroom teachers working to establish procedures getting to know one another. The most important part of the day, however, was...

Classroom management is about trial and error; it comes through practice, patience, teamwork, flexibility, quality mentoring, willingness to seek help, and a huge dose of humor. There is no one solution for every...

“Treat a man as he is, and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be, and he will become as he can and should be.” When he wrote those words, could Goethe have foreseen a...

We've all heard that teacher adage, "Don't smile before Christmas." How many of you abided by that rule this year, contending that smiling before the winter holidays would somehow make you lose control of your...

While observing in several classrooms recently, I noticed teachers who had outstanding lesson plans, but many of their students had other plans—texting, engaging in sidebars, talking out, and engaging in other...

The research is clear: humans are literally "hard-wired" with the desire and need to connect. We are social beings who thrive on healthy relationships. And yet, the importance of positive relationships in our schools...

You worked long and hard to earn your teaching credentials, and this year you have your own classroom for the first time. With that classroom come new responsibilities: learn the curriculum, create instructional...

Remember the Fibonacci sequence? It's a series of numbers in which each subsequent number is the sum of the previous two: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, and so on. One of the most fundamental concepts in...

Teachers in middle level schools face overwhelming demands and challenges in their classrooms. They are expected to know content and pedagogy, develop engaging lessons that meet the needs of diverse learners, and use...