As with most things in education, context can be everything. A skill taught in isolation from meaningful context, for example, is rarely learned, and often becomes grist for blaming the student for his lack of...

It's easy to become jaded about assessment, but I'm going to offer a different view that will hopefully make assessment a tool for learning instead of just an after-the-fact event. We can't always control all of the...

Aiden, an eighth grader, wanted to vent about his latest group project. He had to work with classmates to design an environmentally sustainable home in Vietnam. This involved sourcing local palm thatching and bamboo,...

Reader response compels readers to interact with the text and makes visible for readers and their teachers the depth of text comprehension. This is the fifth in a series on scaffolding writing-to-learn by teaching a...

"Student-centered" is just one set of new buzzwords in the education world. I remember sitting in a professional development session watching a video of students conducting the class with very little input from the...

At last year's AMLE Annual Conference for Middle Level Education, I was surrounded by passionate, knowledgeable preservice and inservice teachers, veteran and new administrators, and early career and retired...

Homework, like taking a daily vitamin, is supposed to be good for us. So why all the angst over a seemingly benign antidote? For teachers, homework is frequently just another piece of paper to grade; for parents,...

Across the United States, general education classrooms are receiving non-English speaking students at an increasing rate. In comparison, the number of educators who are bilingual or multicultural is on the decline....

As a building principal whose days are filled with countless observations, emails, and student interactions, it's easy to forget that there really is a world outside of my wonderful middle school. Over the last...

Where did I put those notes again? Umm … I think I threw those notes away Ms. H. I don't know how to study for this quiz! Ugh, I hate taking notes! When did we learn this? Wait … did we even learn...