In a perfect world I’d love to teach at a high school where I could (within reason) create my own classes. At my high school, seniors took 6-week seminar style social studies electives and I LOOOOOOVED it. I chose to take one on the 1920s, another on the […]
I’ve always heard mixed reviews over the years about the value, or lack thereof, in showing videos in class. Teachers (and parents even!) have said it’s a cop-out, it’s the teacher being lazy, or even that it’s a sign of the teacher not knowing enough about the topic […]
If you have spent time on Pinterest in the last year or so it’s likely you’ve come across something called “Gallery Walks.” I had seen them starting last summer but hadn’t really had a good opportunity to utilize them last semester (plus there was the huge lapbooking push […]
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I like to keep myself and my students on our toes by not getting into an activities rut. Today I’m sharing 3 of my favorite ways to review a topic. You can read about some of my other go-to “get students engaged” strategies and […]
No one wants to get in a teaching rut. That leads to a bored teacher and bored students which turns into not-so-engaged students which decreases their chances for learning and retaining information. So one thing I try to do is use different strategies/techniques/activities each time we get to a […]
I tend to treat the first day back after Christmas break like the first day of school. For one thing, if I’m teaching semester long classes, I will I have whole new groups of students so for them it really IS their first day with me and we […]
Every year teachers learn new tips and tricks, have personal “lesson learned” experiences, or teach a new grade level or content area and have to learn new teaching techniques or subjects. I’ve joined a blog hop with other secondary teachers to share what we’ve learned in 2015 and what […]
Every year without fail, by the second week of school I’m referring to my students as “my kids” to my friends and family. It almost happens without my realizing it, because to me it’s totally natural. I never really gave much thought to it, then I started seeing […]
Let’s be real, not every teacher loves every part of the content area they teach, at least not that I’ve seen, and certainly not me. So then the question is, how do you put on the excited face for a topic you’re less than thrilled about and keep […]
Both my students and I look forward to pamphlet projects. I love that they can get creative and they love not writing essays. First and foremost, students have to be concise in pamphlets. They only have so much space in which to present their information, and depending on […]
