Expert’s Corner

The Power of the Quote

February 3rd, 2010

A friend of mine recently attended an honor’s assembly at his son’s school. As one part of the program, each member of the senior class shared a quote that had special significance for him/her. As something of a collector of quotes, I …

The Sum Unlocks the Whole: Teaching Word Parts

January 3rd, 2010

My son attended elementary school when the “whole word” method of learning new words was experiencing resurgence. By the time he reached upper elementary grades, it was evident that he had neither the ability to phonetically decode words or the knowledge of …

A New Year for Arts Ed

January 1st, 2010

As 2009 drew to a close, educators, battle weary from economic budget cutbacks, faced a new year of uncertainty and instability. Those in arts education are particularly vulnerable to becoming a casualty of budget battles, as the arts are too often perceived …

Kids Online: How Old? How Much? How Soon?

December 31st, 2009

About a year or two ago, a father came up to me during traffic duty in the school parking lot after school. He wanted to know my opinion about allowing his daughter, whom I had taught since fourth grade, to have a …

Bringing Science back to the Front Burner

December 30th, 2009

This Christmas each of your students has had an opportunity to view, wish for or even open new toys as gifts. Each of these gifts has a connection to science. The first day back is an excellent time to bring that science …

Resolutions

December 22nd, 2009

It is the season when our thoughts turn to how this year has passed and how the next one should be better. Toward that end we make resolutions. In the classroom we do that on a day to day basis. But, it …

The Road Forward

December 18th, 2009

As each year draws to an end, we tend to reflect on our own personal journey over the previous twelve months. This year has been especially difficult, and educators have been severely affected along with millions of other jobless American workers. Those …

Ring in the New Year With Some New Commitments to YOU

December 17th, 2009

I’ve never really been one for New Year’s resolutions. When I used to try to make them, I couldn’t stick to them. And I like to just live my life setting goals and achieving them, when I can, with no time limits …

Reflecting on Resolutions to Sharpen Your Saw

December 15th, 2009

As the semester comes to an end, grades are submitted and you tidy your room for a fresh start in the new year. You have spent a semester helping your students pack their suitcase of knowledge and skills. What have you done …

Resolving to Grow Professionally

December 14th, 2009

As educators we’re fortunate to have two starts to the year. We begin each school year with optimism and enthusiasm which may wane a bit as winter break approaches. We can refresh those commitments made in August by resolving to make the …

Math Charades

December 14th, 2009

Learners come in different packages. Some of us are visual, others auditory and many kinesthetic. Using visuals in the classroom, having students discuss their problem solving strategies, and using manipulatives are common methodologies used to meet the needs of different learning styles. Add …

Writing to Learn Chemistry

December 9th, 2009

We tend to focus on the lab and active part of most chemistry classes but writing is a critical component of every scientist’s life. One year I had a medical researcher come in to speak to my class and she brought her …

Professional Development in the 21st Century

December 2nd, 2009

If you’re using online tools like HotChalk, and you’re visiting sites like freeteachertools.com, then you’re probably like me: fairly tech-savvy, and the person your colleagues at school frequently come to for help with their technical needs. You probably invest a fair amount …

Gifts

December 1st, 2009

Of all the presents that I ever received from my parents, the gift of an education in the arts is the one that has never stopped giving. As the season of gift giving approaches, we can look to the arts for gifts …

Enhancing Sustained Silent Reading

November 29th, 2009

Even if you’re already sold on sustained silent reading, you may be wondering how to make sure that your students are really benefiting from the experience. Since most educators and researchers tell us that SSR should be a non-graded period, we are …

Giving Thanks: Letters of Acknowledgement and Appreciation

November 19th, 2009

Looking for relevant, real-world writing projects that appeal to a wide variety of students? The task can be quite challenging.

Extracting Authentic Assessment From the Real World

November 18th, 2009

Yesterday, I had the privilege of sitting in on my five year-old son’s tooth extraction. He was also getting a filling in the adjacent tooth, and before I launch into the article, I would like to give “mad props” to the pediatric …

Teaching Kids To Think

November 16th, 2009

One of the most difficult things to do in the classroom is to draw kids into a rich discussion in which they feel comfortable enough to risk being wrong and to show their thinking. It is often a little uncomfortable for kids …

Color Your World

November 16th, 2009

Ever try the Facebook application, “What Color Crayola Crayon Are You?”. Periwinkle? Blue-Green? Red-Orange? For Baby Boomers, who make up a good segment of the Facebook demographic, the quiz immediately conjures images of the coveted yellow and green box of 64 crayons …

Lessons to be Learned from Video Games

November 15th, 2009

Stuck in the pocket of many a student’s backpack, you are likely to find a hand held video game w arm from play. If not, then a cell phone with games played when adults are not looking. Rather than expressing a dislike …

Making Progress in Mastering Measurement

November 14th, 2009

When you begin teaching, the search for lessons and resources is an ongoing quest. I stole, begged, and borrowed lesson ideas from my colleagues and mentors, who may or may not have been using any sort of research-based strategies.

Science Every Day

November 3rd, 2009

Marathons are run one step at a time and science content is conquered one concept at a time with each concept linking (like the stems in a marathon) to the one before. So, in my class I took the idea of the …

Book Review of The Overachievers by Alexandra Robbins

November 3rd, 2009

I originally wrote this review in one of my own blogs over a year ago. I plan to write an upcoming blog or article about technology and cheating, so I wanted to preface that with this piece about a book I think …

Merit or Not?

November 2nd, 2009

The debate on teacher merit pay continues to rage. But in the raging, we as educators, are losing some very precious ground. Teachers, for the most part, are a docile group dedicated to the betterment of children. Administrations take advantage of this …

Getting Ready to Read: Pre-Reading Activities for Every Classroom

October 26th, 2009

“My curriculum is huge; I ‘ll never cover everything as it is.” ”I don ‘t have time to teach reading. These kids should already know how to read!” ”My teachers always just told us the pages to read and which questions to answer. It …

Halloween Science

October 21st, 2009

If you teach you either love or hate Halloween. There is no middle ground. I found that liking Halloween was so much easier than ignoring the vampire teeth and face paint in my room every time that day rolled around. So, I …

Don’t Teach Your Dog to Talk: Increasing Retention in Math

October 19th, 2009

Each year as we work to help our students learn new skills in math, it seems that too many of them do not know or do not remember much of what they should have learned in previous years. As a result, there …

Building Respect Through Dance

October 15th, 2009

Long before Dancing with the Stars brought Ballroom into living rooms around the world, I had discovered the elegance, grace and magic of Ballroom dance for myself. I secretly longed for the ability to move to music and look good doing it. …

Mining Activities for Inquiry

October 13th, 2009

OK, so you want to teach using an inquiry methodology and you tried to let the kids come up with their own testable questions. You may have ended up with 25 or more different activities all going on at the same time …

Change Your Mindset: Failure is a GOOD Thing!

October 13th, 2009

What’s that old quote? “Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?” Let’s take that and combine it with another truism: “If at first you don ‘t succeed, try, try again.” I know what you ‘re thinking. …

Interactive Technology – Wikified Math Classes

October 1st, 2009

What comes to mind when you hear the word technology as it relates to your math class? Calculators. Interactive white boards. Websites. Geometer’s Sketch Pad. How about wikis?

Gathering Inspiration

October 1st, 2009

He stirs the paint, crouched at the edge of his canvas. Paint drips from the brush making a pattern on the floor. He notices, and he is intrigued. “What if, ” he muses, “I dripped the paint on purpose?” One moment of …

Back to School Season and the Lure of Facebook

September 14th, 2009

In the spirit of full disclosure, I should tell you that I use Facebook. I had a MySpace first, and I keep it around for nostalgia (and because I have a few holdouts still lingering there), but I found that MySpace has …

Structured Solutions

September 11th, 2009

Some call them problem solving boards, others problem solving mats. Tomato, tomah-toe. I call them structures for solutions. Students tend to perform higher on assessments that measure computational skills than they do when the same math is hidden in a word problem. …

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