Writing has significant potential to help students learn other content areas like math, science, social studies, art, physical education, and more. Like speaking and listening, writing isn’t one more thing to teach but rather a tool to help students learn whatever it is you’re teaching. It is critical to use rigorous, evidence-based instructional strategies within your framework. All students can learn at rigorous levels when provided appropriate instruction that incorporates support and scaffolding. Here, let’s…
Art is all around us. In its many forms, it presents fantastic opportunities for discussion, focused language work, and skills-based activities. However, this bottomless cultural resource is largely underused by many language teachers. Using art in language classes is a great way to boost student engagement. Let’s take a look at why that is and how to do it. Why Use Art? Lessons based around works of art have many benefits for both the teacher…
Before attacking a problem set or being introduced to a new concept, some students at San Francisco State University will pause during their science class to do something unusual: ponder life, write thoughts into a journal, and share them with classmates. Why am I here? What am I contributing to this class? Who can I go to when times are tough? While it’s not unexpected for humanities classes to incorporate self-reflection, expressive writing in science…
Every January, Nashville teacher Joel Bezaire reads The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time aloud to his students. Sounds pretty standard, right? It would be for an English class, but Bezaire is teaching reading in math class. The novel is part of a unit on number sense. While it’s easy to envision using math picture books in elementary school classrooms, literature for older grades poses a bigger challenge. Can reading fit into the…
In one of our final blogs of the year, we will be taking a look back at some of 2019’s biggest pieces education news. Teachers maintained their momentum of successful organizing into 2019, beginning the year with a successful strike in Los Angeles, and continuing through Oakland, Denver and Chicago. In all cases, unions won agreements for reduced class sizes, additional nurses and counselors, and more. Teacher walkouts also occurred in West Virginia, North Carolina…
One of the biggest flaws with traditional school transportation, says Todd Ely, director of the Center for Local Government Research and Training at the University of Colorado Denver, is that 66-passenger buses must make several stops along an indirect path. That design translates to long swaths of time with energetic children managed in triage fashion. Buses are also expensive to operate, which means most of the more than 25 million children in the U.S. who…
Everyone — from businesses to classrooms to sporting organizations — is on a quest to crack the code to perfect teamwork. Google spent years studying their working teamwork systems and determined that success wasn’t based on “who” was on a team, but on the culture created by the team — for example, a group that takes turns talking vs. one in which members speak over one another would have better teamwork. Educators are also looking…
Although there is certainly such a thing as too much free choice, especially when it comes to our children and all the learning they still have to do, choice is undeniably an essential part of learning and growing up. As students grow and start to develop their own ideas, we must allow them to incorporate more and more of their own decision making into their lives. Here are some options to offer older students more…
Mental health concerns like anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder can affect a student’s ability to concentrate, form friendships, and thrive in the classroom, among many other things. Educators and school counselors often provide Social and Emotional Learning programs (SEL) in order to help these students, as well as school-based therapeutic support groups. Even in these forums, however, getting teenagers to speak about their problems can be challenging, especially when they feel like outsiders and…
Music is a valuable part of any well-rounded education. While many studies on music’s benefits focus on their association with higher SAT scores in college or student involvement in middle school, the perks of a music education can actually begin much earlier. Students in elementary school exhibit a broad range of benefits from access to an early music education. From math and science to reading and beyond, children perform better in nearly every area when…
