Student learning is no accident!
The view from down here. “It all falls on the classroom teacher, it always does” she reminded me. This was my mother. A retired elementary school teacher, who had made it the long haul. In the classroom for her entire career, advocating for kids, mentoring new teachers- reminding me when I express frustration in the system that, I shouldn’t be… Read More
As a student, I always saw September as an opportunity to rewrite my story. I could make a good impression on my new teachers. I would keep better track of my materials and assignments and maybe even be one of those kids that seemed to “have it all together.” These days, I still find myself resolving to do better every… Read More
Lately, I’ve found myself having conversations with many educators who think self-assessment is a good idea… but just aren’t sure about putting it into practice. Consequences of thoughtful self-assessment: 1. Students reflect on their process, performance, actions. 2. Students become more aware of their learning and/ or actions- in the moment!! “Johnny, don’t you ever think before you speak?!?” (which… Read More
How do you capture all of the learning that occurs during discussions, hands-on exploration and collaborative group work? When there is a written product… we know we can collect and correct (ugh)… but that’s not always my first choice. When I collect and correct too much, I lose the ability to catalog and analyze and make instructional decisions based on… Read More
Dear Teachers, Thanks for wanting to jump back in with us as we dig into Assessment in Instruction! This is the last of the 4 challenges- and I know you’ll finish strong! To get started, think about which level you feel most accurately describes your daily teaching experiences… Level 1: There is little or no assessment or monitoring of student… Read More
‘An Environment of Respect & Rapport’… This is an area I find myself discussing quite often with teachers. At least once a week, I have conversations with teachers about how tricky they find this particular domain/ standard to assess. Recently, I attended a presentation about how some teachers and mentors are tackling this very topic. Before we think about how… Read More
You never REALLY know what how they *think* about fractions until:
🅰️You ask them to order them from least to greatest
🅱️ You listen to them defend the order to their partner 🆎 A&B🤣🤣🤣 Yup! I had some 😳 moments today! But they were followed by 💡💡💡. We played all of my Differentiated Flashcard Games in fifth grade today and something awesome happened. ☑️While playing “Clothesline,” one student happened to flip over 5 unit fractions to order. He ordered them totally wrong. And he explained to his partner that he looked at the denominator to do it ... (blah, blah) 😳I stood there (kind of in disbelief, but also thinking- teachable moment coming!!!) thinking, hey- there are VISUALS on those cards!!! ☑️Most importantly, his partner said, yeah- but look at the pictures. 😉 (Way to coach, kid!) 🤩🚨The real magic came when this student, who had been wrong, changed the order of his cards and said “oh, so like- when there’s more pieces, they are smaller.” 🍕🍕🍕 💡💡💡💡💡💡💡 🐄🐄🐄Here’s the thing: YOU can tell kids about the “rules” of fractions until the cows come home🐄🐄🐄 🧠They need to MAKE the connections themselves. 🗣They need to talk about it to really make meaning. 🧠Brain research tells us we need lots of NOVEL experiences with new concepts to really learn. 📆So... 6 or 7 weeks into fractions, this guy had the right experience to make that HUGE conceptual LEAP. Be ready for it. Tomorrow might be the day for 3 of your students!! What are you doing to create the conditions for learning?? #brainbasedlearning #differentiatedinstruction #mathintervention
Omg. Such perfect timing for my ❤️. I saw too many backpacks like this during this short 4-day week. 😔It’s why we started our group IMPACT to support teachers helping all students feel SAFE, LOVED, & CAPABLE. www.tohavehope.com/classroombundle.html
Ph cr: Edutopia
Crushing writer’s block with simple protocols! Every Wednesday!
No More Reluctant Writers • Write Solutions
www.writesolutions.org
For years, the reluctant writers in my classroom were my biggest stressor when it came to teaching middle school writing. There were so many students in my class that just needed to pick up their pencil and write!! No matter how much I begged, some students just would not write... and if they wouldn...Leaving sub plans?? Me too! I just determined the best thing to leave as emergency sub plans for one particular class, is stations of math games.
📞So... after I got the call that one of my kids had a fever today, I made this sub tub. It was easy enough- and I put it together in one period.
⚽️I used games we already know how to play: Slides & Ladders, Fraction Top It (War), Fraction Memory, and Clothesline Comparisons. All of these are available in my Writesolutions TPT Store.
🎡(Link in comments for a FREE 7 table Slides & Ladders)
🧰All of the games include playing cards, student directions, teacher notes and recording sheets.
✏️I put everything needed for a game in a Manila envelope with directions on the outside so that everything is SUPER simple.
🤷🏼♀️Who needs extra stress when someone is sick??
🚧What’s your go-to sub plan??
#classroomsystemsthatwork
#subtub
#mathteachersrock
#5thgrade
I’m REALLY in love with this book! I got it through my preschooler’s @scholasticbookclubs order.
🌜🚜We read #goodnightconstructionsite way too much over here and I doubted anything could compare.
📔But this book, Three Cheers For Kid McGear, absolutely is in the same league.
🌈I was so impressed today when reading it with my boys. My oldest remarked, “that wasn’t very kind,” when Kid McGear was excluded from the group.
🌈This story has such a great message about the littlest truck having so so much to offer, despite the initial judgements of her peers.
#littlereaders
