Saturday morning at 7:28am I became the country’s English teacher. I didn’t know it at the time, of course, which is how these things usually work. The Idea for an Online Course Appears I had been thinking about the implications of school closures due to COVID-19, and my mind was
Looking for Ways to Help Kids Learn at Home? Looking for great, free resources for learning from home? Whether it’s due to school closure, summer break, homeschooling, or just wanting to build a house of learning, I’m sharing some great ideas. Resources are available to help you facilitate learning at
Sending home classroom parent permission forms typically occurs at the beginning of the year. Unfortunately, no one teaches you how to do it. In college they don’t help teachers learn any of the really important stuff, like how to operate the copier or run a laminator, and I know they
Book Report Badness: The Trouble with Summarizing There is always some tension between teaching a subject and making sure that we don’t turn the subject into a source of pain and drudgery. It’s the art of teaching (and parenting, really). I’ve written about it before when I talked about the
Do you love looking back on what you’ve done, where you’ve been, and think about where you’re going? I do! This is the second year that I’ve done a year in a review, and while they take hours to write, they’re worth it. I hope you agree. Speaking In 2019,
Choice menus (sometimes called Extension Menus or Choice Boards or fifty other titles) are a foundational technique for many teachers. Typically, they’re a grid somewhat like a tic-tac-toe board that has different options students can choose from to complete some task or project. Just do a quick search and you’ll
Every Christmas, I put away the children’s books that fill a basket in my family room and exchange them for beloved Christmas stories. In our home, it wouldn’t be Christmas without reading these favorites, both old and new. Most have tattered covers now, yet they are precious to me. I
Would you like to build a stronger partnership with your child’s school? If you’re an educator, would you like to consider how to build a stronger partnership with families? When I keynoted the Colorado Association for the Gifted and Talented Conference in Loveland, I attended a session by Lisa Girard
If you want to do group work really well, you need to allow the students to give feedback on how they worked in groups, and you need to share that feedback in a loving, gentle way. Here’s how. Why you need to solicit feedback from students You need to offer
Here’s a newsflash: school is not designed for gifted kids. When you recover from the shock, read on. Depending upon who you talk to, school is designed to: Create an educated (and ideally compliant) work force Develop productive citizens Provide free childcare Correct all of the problems created by ineffective
I don’t know about you, but I’ve really been enjoying the Interview with a Gifted Kid series. I’ve interviewed gifted kids and grown up gifted kids, and now I’m sharing an interview I did with two fabulous gifted teachers from Louisiana. These women know their stuff. Here’s their experience: Cheryl
A 6th grade social studies teacher who attended a session I did on effective grouping strategies for students asked if I would help out with an assignment she had been given. She realized it wasn’t set up effectively and wanted my thoughts. Warning: I’m about to point out some problems
