Helping Teachers Inspire Learners
Children’s picture books have always been the mainstay of every primary classroom. Teachers of all grade levels know the power of the picture book to engage students and help them imagine, visualize and learn. Book units help teachers to dig deeper into the books to increase comprehension and foster joy in reading. The Power of the Book Unit The picture…
Read More
As this year comes to an end and I reflect on the school year so far, I am constantly amazed at how much teaching has changed since I started over 20 years ago. Even though I am not in the classroom anymore, I still spend time working with teachers and students and helping teachers to move their practice forward. In…
Read More
Flexible seating has been trending for a couple of years now in education. While I have had flexible seating options in my classroom for over 20 years, I have never written about it until now. I wanted to wait for a while and let this “new” trend settle for a bit before diving in. Just what IS flexible seating? Probably the…
Read More
Summer learning. Two words that don’t seem to go together. Most students and teachers are happy to be able to have some down time. School is a very busy place and mental fatigue is a real thing, don’t you think? It’s important for kids to go off for summer break and relax, play, and stay up a bit later. But…
Read More
It occurred to me today that I have written about Genius Hour before in quite a bit of detail as I was learning and going through the process but I really hadn’t summed up my learning overall. Not to mention, thoughts and ideas change over time as teaching and pedagogy changes as well. You can see some of the other…
Read More
Teaching primary writers starts with engagement. It’s about allowing students to construct their own meaning in the writing they do by building a writing mindset. When you do that, students are more engaged. Too often, writing is seen either as just a collection of skills or a writing prompt. Teaching writing can be a large, and complex process, but it…
Read More