Over the last two days I have had the amazing, fabulous, energizing opportunity to hear from the man himself, Dr. Spencer Kagan all about Brain Friendly Learning. Anyone who knows me as a teacher knows that I live and die by Dr. Kagan's strategies, and I was in complete awe the entire two days. Whenever I attend a workshop such as this one, I … [Read more...] about Refocusing the Classroom
Making Peer Editing Meaningful
Are you ready for your students to start peer editing? Using peer editing is a powerful tool to build engagement during writing. Students are able to improve their own writing as well as working with one another to build editing skills. Last week I wrote about How to Help Students Revise in this post. I am very happy to report that revisions are … [Read more...] about Making Peer Editing Meaningful
Seven Super Strategies for Geometry
Geometry is one of those units in math that when planning for I think, oh yeah, we've got this. Then we get into the unit and sure enough, students get it. Then we take the assessment and whomp, whomp, they didn't get it. At least that is how it worked out for me this year. I am not going to wallow in it, instead, I sat down and made a game … [Read more...] about Seven Super Strategies for Geometry
Helping Students Revise Their Writing
With the writing test only a little over a month away, we are really in the thick of things in our classroom. We have been working all year to make sure our writing is the best it can be, but still, my students cling to their first drafts as if they are their most prized possession. If you work with students, or adults for that matter, on their … [Read more...] about Helping Students Revise Their Writing
Addition and Subtraction
We are officially in review mode to start preparing for our state tests. This means that we are spiraling everything we have learned in math, while still introducing the rest of the material of course, in every way that we can. Here are six of my favorites! Act Out Addition and Subtraction Problems My students find it challenging to identify … [Read more...] about Addition and Subtraction