Teaching

It’s More Than Books

Making connections with sports in the middle school classroom When I taught middle school language arts, one of my students, Matthew, would complain that he was not able to give an explanation about or summarize the poems we were reading in class. However, every Monday he would spend the first part of class talking to

Read More… from It’s More Than Books

The Young Adolescent State of Mind

What neuroscience reveals about our students and how we should respond In This We Believe, the Association for Middle Level Education stresses the importance of understanding the unique developmental needs of our middle level students in designing appropriate learning environments and for understanding how those environments can contribute to or interfere with our students’ learning. Researchers

Read More… from The Young Adolescent State of Mind

Humor? Yes, Please!

Embracing humor in the classroom invites creativity, reduces stress, and enhances retention Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.” – Victor Borge In my first year of teaching, I taught kindergarten. There are moments from that year that parallel later moments teaching middle school because in both, students are figuring out the spoken and

Read More… from Humor? Yes, Please!