To get my students excited about reading over the holiday break, I plan a book swap.  I tell students to bring in a book that they enjoyed, but no longer need, to swap with a friend.  In the days leading up to the book swap, I prepare the boys and girls by sharing my expectations for the swap. 

Students will have to share the title and genre, introduce the protagonist, and give a little preview of the plot, without spoiling the ending.  (This is the most difficult part.) 

My…

WHAT ARE TESTS REALLY MEASURING?: WHEN ACHIEVEMENT ISN’T ACHIEVEMENT

THE BECOMING RADICAL

A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University)

Tis the season for many things: a season of giving, of thanks, and of celebration. As I attended the concerts that mark the holiday season—as they do for schools throughout New York State—I could not help but think back to September and October, to a time when students were at the start of the process to learn songs and many other life lessons in music classes. I can vividly remember observing a teacher who was teaching a group of second grade students. It was a wonderful lesson.…

America has only a few great educators. For the last 50 years, Siegfried Engelmann has been one of them.

His passion was to figure out what worked best in the ordinary classroom for ordinary children. He was, shall we say, in love with practicality and empiricism. You come up with ideas, you test them, and then you refine them. You do not impose your ideas on children until you have proved that your ideas are the best possible ones.

 You might notice at this…

All-important and overlooked: classroom management

A new report from the National Council on Teacher Quality investigates the extent to which America's traditional teacher-preparation programs offer research-based strategies for candidates to better manage classrooms from the outset. Most programs can correctly claim at least some classroom-management instruction, but it's often scattered throughout the curriculum. Most…

Community schools: It's time

Efforts to create full-service community schools that serve the whole child with an array of services are gaining traction under California's new education funding formula, writes Jane Meredith Adams for Ed Source. The convergence of more money for low-income students and a new mandate to work with families under the Local Control Funding Formula has created an environment in which community…

The Critical Words Your Students Must Know for the Common            Core State Standards!

by Marilee  Sprenger

http://www.marileesprenger.com/the-critical-words.html

Researchers estimate 85% of achievement test scores are based on the vocabulary of the standards. Students from poverty, ELL…