I’ve known since I joined Twitter four years ago that the education community, or PLN (professional learning network), is amazing. I don’t follow anyone who is not an educator or affiliated with educators, and my main goal when scrolling is to get inspired. In the last blog, I posed the question, “How can we, as teachers,
An update on a district-wide transformation of middle level education and technology for learning In our article titled “Transforming Middle School Practice Through Instructional Technology,” we shared how our district has approached systematic growth by intertwining twin focuses on middle level education and leveraging instructional technology for learning. The first steps of that process began
Modeling gender empowerment and equity in a #MeToo Movement world Introduction Young adolescent education must be empowering and equitable (NMSA, 2010). While empowerment and equity are at the forefront of middle school educators’ minds as they plan their lessons and conduct class, it may be harder to encompass these attributes when working with students and community members
Embracing humor in the classroom invites creativity, reduces stress, and enhances retention Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.” – Victor Borge In my first year of teaching, I taught kindergarten. There are moments from that year that parallel later moments teaching middle school because in both, students are figuring out the spoken and
Creating meaningful learning experiences through language arts and mathematical connections Examining the Evidence For centuries, traditional American schooling has taken place in isolated silos of math, language arts, science, and social studies. However, once entering the workforce, students find that the increasingly global and interconnected world does not discriminate between disciplines. Artists, athletes, and authors
Examining the cultural narrative around these ideologies 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 learning rather than analyzing the teacher’s instructional design. Read a mediocre piece of