How do you decide what the best laptop for school is? What makes one superior over another (and why aren’t I writing this post on a Chromebook if they are so great)? Last year I was given a grant for 5 Nexus 7 tablets. I love my personal one (I also have two iPads, iPhones … Read more
Tools for struggling students are essential. These kids need strategies to maximize their learning potential and that is often in the form of technology. We all have the kids who seem to have to work so much harder than everyone else to make even the smallest gains. We also have very limited time and resources … Read more
Tips for how to use educational technology in the classroom? Grab your iPad, Ladybug or classroom clickers and try something new! Often primary education teachers are afraid to use new classroom technology for fear that their students are too young. Just watch your students though – they know how to use Google aps, download material, … Read more
Would you be able to do a better job implementing RTI if you understood exactly how it is supposed to work? Response to Intervention is a focus on implementing a solution for all students to be successful. What we are currently doing in U.S. schools isn’t working. Current data shows that the United States is … Read more
Response to intervention is data-driven instruction that is implemented to maximize the achievement of all students. Just be sure you are prescribing the right medicine to fix the problem. RTI is data-driven instruction that is implemented in both the general education classroom and specialized resource rooms. It is designed to maximize the achievement of … Read more
Assessment rubrics need to be made before instruction begins. The best ones are clear, easy for students to use drive instruction as part of a formative assessment. What is a rubric? It is essentially a scoring guide that is a working document meant for both students and teachers. Harry and Rosemary Wong state in their … Read more
Assessment in education is meant to inform us about student progress and needs. Too often though, teachers miss out on using this valuable information to guide their instruction. Educators should use differentiated assessment tools. This means that teachers use different types of evaluations to determine background knowledge, current understanding, and overall learning. Classroom assessment techniques … Read more
What is reciprocal teaching? This is a reading instruction strategy that teaches the students to monitor their understanding of a text and develop meta-cognition. The idea of using a reciprocal method of instruction has been floating around for at least 30 years, but the term has really come into mainstream education in the past decade. … Read more
Integrating Benjamin Blooms taxonomy questions into your lessons provides a way to differentiate and extend student learning. Using higher order thinking skills and questioning is at the heart of truly differentiated instruction. For some of us, it takes a concerted effort to implement this into our daily lesson plans. Over time, it becomes a natural … Read more
What is Blooms Taxonomy? How does it apply to using higher order questions with differentiated instruction? Benjamin Bloom was an educational psychologist. He was particularly interested in the cognitive domains. After conducting research on how students think and make meaning, he published the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives in 1956. This is now called Mastery Learning. … Read more
Best teaching practices are core to a student centered classroom. The classrooms with an ideal learning environment are the ones that use research based teaching methods that get results. A student-centered classroom has an environment that includes culturally responsive teaching to reach ELL/ESOL populations. It also takes into account differences in learning styles, home situations … Read more
Top ten things you need to know about teaching gifted students. These kids are special and we have to do a better job in educating them. The research on teaching exceptional students is clear: we aren’t doing a very good job of it. Federal funding for education statistics shows that unless a state or district … Read more
Gifted characteristics are often mistaken for poor behavior in the classroom. The traits of gifted students actually creates unique differentiated instruction opportunities teachers can build and extend on. These unique kids tend to drive many teachers and parents crazy. They can be highly emotional, have very strong feelings without the maturity to appropriately display … Read more
Remember the bell curve? There are so many levels of intellectual giftedness, but we have to be very aware of exceptionally gifted kids so we don’t lose them. There are certain gifted characteristics some children have that certainly put them on a different academic level than others. As well, current studies on brain research and … Read more
What does differentiation in the classroom really look like and how can teachers make sure they are growing all students? Differentiated instruction is done by recognizing that students have a variety of background knowledge and experiences, interests, and readiness, and then reacting appropriately. That sounds easy, but it isn’t. Like anything else, using differentiated instructional … Read more
Teachers who consistently use differentiated instruction produce students with greater academic gains. These 4 differentiation strategies work because one size does not fit all. Using a variety of instructional strategies is nothing new. Great teachers have always done this (that’s part of why they are so good). Now that Value Added scores are being … Read more
A deficit in executive communication skills impact more students than you may realize. The executive function of the brain is critical for classroom performance. The executive function of the brain is a compilation of behaviors that help students take a task from the beginning to completion. Students use their working memory to store information and … Read more
Understanding the social learning theory is highly relevant for today’s classroom. If you are a teacher, you will be teaching social skills. Teaching social skills begins with teacher modeling. Whether you realize it or not, your students watch how you behave and will emulate you in many ways. If kids feel certain behaviors are acceptable … Read more
Good writing skills are part of the communication domain. It is essential for professionals to understand how to assess a child’s ability to write in the Classroom Communication Domain. Learning writing skills is important because many parts of it are the foundational skills of literacy. The writing must be purposeful and able to be used … Read more
Active listening skills are a critical part of the communication domain in a classroom performance assessment. Being an effective listener means that students are using strategies to pay attention to auditory input. Sometimes when students are not performing well in the classroom, there may be an issue with their receptive language. How can we improve … Read more
How can teachers know exactly what the root cause of a reading problem is? This is critical for targeting the correct interventions, and keeping reading a top priority for kids who need us to go the extra mile. Reading is part of the CPA domain. Being able to use comprehension strategies and improving academic content … Read more
Teaching speaking is is about training students how to integrate skills to deliver oral “presentations” without articulation difficulties . Learn what to look for that could signal speaking problems. Speaking problems arise for young students when they have difficulties blending cognitive, lexical, syntactic, listening and comprehension skills. Basically, that means they have issues with: Our … Read more
Studies show that students who can effectively use different types of communication skills are able to express their knowledge in a way that turns passive learning into critical thinking. Classroom communication is the interactive language and responses between students and teachers. The importance of these skills cannot be down-played, and must be emphasized even at … Read more
Discover how to build your students meta-cognition skills with fun journal writing ideas. You can promote literacy across the curriculum with active writing topics that encourage kids to share. Daily exposure to writing lessons and practice is critical, especially for students with learning differences. We want to develop an intrinsic desire in our students to … Read more
6 benefits of journal writing for elementary students, plus some ideas for making writing lists to spark kids imaginations. Daily writing in a relaxed format provides a non-threatening way to be able to explore different thoughts, ideas and topics without being concerned about audience presentation. The ultimate purpose of journal writing is to be able … Read more