Top-down professional development actually can backfire and cause teachers to become jaded by what they view as "flavor of the month" strategies, suggests Ariel Sacks, a middle-school language arts teacher and instructional support coach. In this blog post, she offers insight into one teacher's experience with ineffective PD.
What your students need is you. It's one part life coach and three parts a manual for mastering the facets of teaching that no talks about. Teach Like Yourself explains why learning to be true to you is so powerful for you and for your students. Download the Teach Like Yourself manifesto
Teachers can bring Halloween into lessons across the curriculum, asserts former educator Susan Curtis. In this blog post, she shares resources designed to tap students' excitement for Halloween, including History Channel videos, just-right scary stories, science experiments and math lessons.
Average math scores on the ACT college-entrance exam have declined from 20.9 in 2014 to 20.5 for the graduating class of 2018, the lowest level in about 20 years, according to ACT data. "We're at a very dangerous point. And if we do nothing, it will keep on declining," ACT Chief Executive Officer Marten Roorda said.
School districts are experimenting with various ways to provide broadband access for students who lack service at home, a problem that particularly affects students of color and students in rural areas, the US Department of Education says. One solution to the "homework gap" problem: mapping out areas where students can gain access to free Wi-Fi.
Evan Tucker spent a year teaching middle-school science, often drawing on his experiences as a student-athlete playing high-school and college football. In this blog post, he writes about the parallels of the experiences, such as playing with bruises, and describes how football made him a better learner and a better teacher.
Children and teens with one or more developmental disabilities were two times more likely to be chronically absent, compared with those without developmental disabilities, according to a report from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. The findings, based on National Health Interview Survey data involving more than 26,000 youths ages 5 to 17, also showed that chronic school absenteeism was most common among those with intellectual disabilities and autism.
Is it important for students to want to learn in order to succeed in learning?
Cheryl Moertel, NBCT, dives into intrinsic and extrinsic student motivations in order to paint a bigger picture of what makes students want to learn and why this is important. Read on.
Building awareness for Board Certification
When you see a great teacher, reach out and let them know why they should consider becoming National Board-certified. To help you engage and encourage these educators, we have developed resources for your use. Download them, print them and share them today.
