Most teachers read professional development books over the summer months. Sometimes, groups of educators get together and tackle them as part of a school-wide or department-wide book study during the…
Arranging your secondary classroom for the first time, or maybe just looking for ways to switch things up? In this post, you’ll find over 20 helpful ideas for everything from…
Looking for meaningful summer learning activities for teens? This post contains rewarding ideas for working with older students during the summer months. It’s the end of the year. You’ve made…
Wondering how to help students improve their writing skills and confidence? Model writing by writing aloud! To be honest, when I began teaching, I had very little idea how to…
Searching for ways to teach reading meaningfully in secondary? Welcome! This post – Getting to Know Your Readers – is the first in a series about how to teach reading…
Lesson transitions can be frustrating when they don’t go smoothly. Move from one activity to the next efficiently using these simple tips for classroom transitions. Imagine this: You’re teaching an…
Whether you’re helping students prepare for a unit assessment, mid-terms, final exams, or standardized tests, effective exam review strategies are important. I’ve written about maximizing review time previously. In this…
Do you ever feel like you’re not sure what to do with the students who…fail vocabulary quizzes, struggle to write essays, find grammar challenging, or grapple with literary analysis? It…
Color-coding strategies are fun, but they also wield a deeper value. Colors can have a positive impact on memory and attention. Using color-coding is a great way to provide scaffolding…
Defiance, purposeful distraction, shredding work, talking back…these difficult behaviors can be hard to address in the middle or high school classroom, especially if more than one student is exhibiting them…