Let's talk smartphones and social media solutions! Welcome to our book study on The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt! In part 1, I wrote about the harmful effects of smartphones, technology, and social media on today’s adolescence. Today I will be summarizing recommendations that the author outlines in the books for what we can do as parents, teachers, and schools to combat ...
Search Results for: i can
Student Data Tracking You Can Keep Up With
Student data tracking helps drive instructional decisions. I’ve been using daily exit tickets for years, and they would help me decide if I needed to reteach a skill, but I wasn’t tracking the data in a way that motivated my students and doing it daily seemed impossible when I tried. This year I have a system that I have managed to tweak, maintain, and really push my students and ...
Using Canvas in Your Classroom
Going paperless can seem like a daunting task in the classroom! Here are some tips and tricks to make the transition from handouts to an environmentally-friendly classroom easy using Canvas. For those who are unfamiliar, Canvas is a learning management software that allows for each student to access material and submit assignments, and it makes communication easier for teachers. 1. ...
Using Atomic Habits To Improve Student Outcomes
At the beginning of this year, I reread Atomic Habits to jump start all of the better choices I would be making in 2026. If you haven’t read Atomic Habits, the author, James Clear, provides a framework for how to effectively change your habits to get 1% better every day – I highly recommend it! When I initially read the book, I focused on how I could use this framework to be ...
8+ Ideas for Using Study Guides
When preparing my students for an upcoming unit assessment, I consider it due diligence to spend at least one day reviewing the material from the unit. Our unit study guides make review days so much easier! Here’s why: Marissa breaks down some of her best practices for using the study guide: Here are some (more) ideas from the teachers in our community (and a few from ...
Utilizing Learning Styles in Math
Our classrooms are full of diverse students who learn math in a variety of ways. For some students, they excel when they can converse about math with a partner. For others, they need to see the concepts they are learning about. Lastly, there are students who need to physically move to engage in math. As teachers, we can use and blend auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learning ...
Seating Charts for Middle School
Seating charts for middle school classrooms are essential! They are the foundation of classroom management. Be prepared for day 1 of school with a completed seating chart. Let’s talk about why. Why Should You Have a Seating Chart In a perfect world, all students would be successful no matter where they were sitting in your classroom. We don’t live in a perfect world or ...
20 Must Have Teacher Supplies
If I had to draw one broad generalization about teachers, it would be that teachers love school supplies. To this day, I am exhilarated by walking down the school supply aisles. I have compiled a list of my favorite teacher supplies, all priced under $20. These are all supplies that I have found useful in my classroom, along with some great ideas for incorporating them. Some supplies ...
The Pros and Cons of Advanced Math
In 2023, Texas passed a law requiring school districts to develop an advanced math program for middle school students that enables students to enroll in Algebra I in 8th grade. If you work backwards, that means students would be responsible for learning 6th, 7th, and 8th grade standards in just a two-year period. Let’s talk about the pros and cons of this, and what Maneuvering the ...
Step-by-Step Vertical Alignment
Vertical alignment - let's discuss how to vertically align curriculum in a professional learning community. VERTICAL ALIGNMENT FIRSTHAND It was the beginning of my second year of teaching and my first year in sixth grade. I clearly remember thinking, “I should do a warm up to practice division so I can see where they are at.” Well, what I thought would be a quick warm ...