Helping students make sense of issues that concern them In September 2015, a haunting image of Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi circulated the world, mostly via social media. His lifeless body on the shores of Turkey was a confronting and emotive image for the average adult. For many young adolescents, it was unimaginable. The “why” was
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Moving Beyond Tech-Rich Classrooms Imagine being tasked with teaching a class of restless adolescents, all of whom have different learning styles, strengths, interests, and needs. Or perhaps this daunting scenario is not so farfetched at all. A team of innovative teachers at Middletown Middle School (MMS) in Frederick County, Maryland, decided to try something vastly
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Assessment expert Dylan Wiliam says that student thinking is the primary goal for descriptive feedback. He contrasts that goal with what often happens when teachers use judgement instead of feedback with students: threatened ego. When we invoke the need to save one’s honor or self-perception in a student through our comments on his performance, there’s little to no
Read More… from Reflective Coaching: Training for All Teachers
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How video games can help students develop important life skills Admit it. You have played video games and perhaps enjoyed them! Tetris? Candy Crush? Angry Birds? Solitaire? Or perhaps a game-of-chance? Well you are not alone. With more than 65 million users of Pokemon Go gained in the week after it launched, the craze rekindled
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Making connections with advisory is so much fun When we first began creating our advisory program, its purpose was to replace a 30-minute homeroom embedded in our day. One of the problems with advisory at the time was that teachers were struggling to create worthwhile activities. We needed a better plan and an advisory program
Read More… from Creating Connections in Our School: It was BIGGER than We Thought!
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Using Hollywood film and sources to analyze figures in Greek mythology There is no doubt that the use of Hollywood films in a classroom provides the students with a variety of benefits crucial to their learning and their understanding. Although movie day in a middle level classroom is typically viewed by students as a “blow
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