Summer is in full swing and the slower pace is the perfect time to sit down with your children and enjoy a good book. Most schools encourage summer reading and ask children to complete summer reading logs. So, if you’re looking for reading lists for some new book ideas, Here are a few sites to…
Real Classrooms. Real Teachers. Real Answers.
End of Year Activities
As the of the end of the year draws near, curriculum demands are winding down and your students’ minds are on summer vacation. Some schools ask for grades to be handed in a good two weeks before the end of the year, some schools wait until the last day. No matter what your school’s guidelines…
Drill Baby Drill
Recently a friend posted a link on Facebook regarding a Kumon Program. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/fashion/with-kumon-fast-tracking-to-kindergarten.html?_r=2&ref=education I don’t know a lot about the program itself and so I am not commenting on that particular program. What I am commenting on is the fundamentals of what the article was discussing, which is the concept of having young children…
End of Year Activities
As the school the year starts to wind down, it’s a great time to bring in some of your parents to volunteer. Have parents come in and teach the students about a hobby or something fun they know. I once had a parent who was great at making paper airplanes. My class spent an afternoon…
For the Love of Reading.
I recently read a great article, Can Reading Be Saved? by Kelly Gallagher. http://www.edweek.org/tsb/articles/2011/04/04/02gallagher.h04.html In his article, Mr. Gallagher discusses the change in reading behavior in adolescents over the past decade and how students are reading a lot less. He mentions several factors that contribute to what he considers to be a decline in reading…
Teacher Talk
Teacher Tip Recently my computer crashed and the tech fixing it explained everything to me. I understood none of it. It was all technical mumbo jumbo to me. Which brings me to my teaching tip. When talking to parents, don’t talk “teacher lingo”. They don’t need to hear about phonemic awareness and diagraphs and diphthongs,…
A Mile Deep
“We should spend more time fertilizing and nurturing the flowers instead of measuring how tall they’ve grown” – Author Unknown. Well said. There is an ongoing debate in this country over standardized testing and assessment. In many states standardized testing has taken over the school’s curriculum. As I’ve heard it stated before, standardized testing…
Welcome To Our Blog!
Welcome To Our Blog, We’d like to welcome you to our blog. We hope you will take time to look around our newly redesigned website. Our blog is written by us, as well as occasional guest bloggers, who are basically other teachers. We’ll be commenting on topical concerns and trends in education, as well as…