If you are looking for a guaranteed way to maintain meaningful instruction while still engaging all of your students this October, you should try a project-based learning activity.  Project-Based Learning (PBL) activities have many inherent qualities that lend them to being excellent holiday activities.  When kids tackle a project-based learning task, it gives them an opportunity to work collaboratively, think… Read More

After I had been implementing STEM challenges into my classroom instruction for some time, I wanted to understand how to know if my STEM instruction was actually effective.  What did STEM instruction that really work actually look like?  After really spending some time thinking about this, reflecting on my classroom, and watching some fantastic teacher friends, I settled on five… Read More

1.  Student Work is Saved Automatically Since I started teaching in 2001, a common issue that has come up time and again in my classroom is student work going missing.  I wish I had a dime for every time I have had a student tell me they completed an assignment, but it has since been misplaced.  In addition, as computers… Read More

If you are anything like me you have way too much time on your hands, you have no problem teaching everything you are asked to teach and you just wish you would be given a few more things to fill up your lesson plan.  Okay, now that I am done laughing hysterically I will try to be serious.  If you… Read More

  This year I have been working on incorporating new ways to engage my students during our literacy block.  If your classroom is anything like mine, you have some students who are chomping at the bit to dive into a book or compose their next piece of writing.  You probably also have others that just the knowledge that literacy block… Read More

Your Kids Will Beg to Write This Fall During the crazy fall months, I look for any way to keep my student’s minds engaged.  One of the ways I do this is through Wacky Writing!  I want my kids to love writing and to look forward to opportunities to write! I have found that my students beg, time and again,… Read More

Are Word Search Puzzles a Waste of Time? With the important and increased focus in the last decade on increasing rigor in the classroom, many teachers and administrators have argued that word search puzzles have no educational value. They often claim that they do not promote the higher order thinking skills we are working to instill in our students.  Some… Read More

It’s that time of year again!  Halloween is almost here. Kids everywhere are picking out their costumes and gearing up for the fun-filled day!  During October, as Halloween approaches, kids and adults alike with be thinking about ghouls, witches, black cats, and of course bats! Because of this, I have found there is no better time of year to capture… Read More

In today’s classroom, where everything seems to be driven by standards and test scores, I sometimes find it hard to find the time to spend with my students learning about different character qualities and life lessons that, arguably, are more important lessons to learn than some of the ones we are required to teach.  As a history lover, I look… Read More