From Constructivism and Connectivism to Situated Learning, here are 32 of the most common learning theories every teacher should know.

I’m a teacher. Now what do I do? There are several ways to engage learners in the classroom. Here are a few ideas if you get stuck. Additional resources: ~Mia

Teachers! Do you know all the tax deductions you can claim each year? Find out the teacher tax deductions that will boost your tax refund.

I so remember my first year as a new teacher! I wondered why I was even hired! (Did they not know that I didn't have a clue how to do ‘this teacher thing'?!) Yes, I had graduated with a degree, a teaching certificate, and had an idealistic philosophy of education (that had no basis in research […]

I received a handout at a workshop I recently attended on different factors coaches can look for in classroom observations. Collecting quality evidence during observations and presenting it in a clear manner to teachers is such an important piece of improving teacher practice and student achievement…so this handout really got me thinking about what I look […]

Explore our comprehensive collection of classroom resources, including classroom posters, engaging activities, classroom management techniques, and more. Enhance your teaching and inspire your students with these valuable insights.

What do you want your students to do? There’s an edtech app for that! Created by @Poeteacher TechUseGuide pdf

I cannot believe that it's already time to start thinking about Parent-Teacher Conferences. We will start scheduling ours tomorrow, and then we will meet with parents

Elizabeth Stein says melding the insights of Bloom's Taxonomy and the concepts of Universal Design for Learning can result in higher level student thinking.

Similar to having a mission statement or defined company goals, your eLearning development should rely on these few “you shall” and “you shall not’s”.

School has officially started for us! We are several days into the school year and I am loving my new class! It's a big group but they are a great group of kids! We are *for-sure* crammed into the classroom this year... nice and cozy. To build confidence and review, we have been working on letter identification, sounds and letter formation. Students have been sorting upper and lower case letters.... They have been working on each letter as they trace, write, identify the beginning sound and locate the letter... They have been sorting beginning sound pictures... They have been "spinning a letter" and then tracing the letter they spin. (This also works on graphing skills, YEAH!) Hands on students can stamp letters... Students are matching upper case to lower case.... You can grab up this packet (which is 120 pages of goodness!!) in my TpT store by clicking below! It's marked down so grab it up! We have also been doing a student of the day writing paper. Part of our writing assessment includes details in the picture so we are concentrating on hands and fingers, no "floating" people, facial features and backgrounds. We start with the sentences "I can see ______." I model my drawing of what a person should look like and then they draw their own version... each day they get better! Click below to get the super simple printable page that we use. I have included a traceable version for kiddos that need a little help. I have also included an editable version of the cover page for the books. I bind all of the pages together and then send it home so each kiddo has their own book with pictures of them drawn by the whole class. Here is a sample of what I send home... Stephanie has started off the year using Sherri's Alphabet Practice Chant with her kindergarten class. Using it daily all year is a great way to learn letter sounds while having fun! I plan on purchasing it to use with some kiddos that still need some letter/sound reinforcement in first! I have a recorder so I plan on recording the chant as a group and then putting it with the slide show so that students can listen to it at the listening station. I will have to update later to let you know how that worked out! It is going to be an awesome year! We have a lot of ground to cover but I think this group is up for a challenge! Endless Possibilities, Stephany

An elementary art teacher blog with art projects and lessons, DIY projects and outfit photos as well as clothing I have made myself.

This week as many of you know was our state ELA testing. In our middle school after the testing is over, we still have all of our class periods. I spent time in my ELA class watching The Lightning Thief because we are going to be writing an argument essay between the book and the movie. Before we took our ELA test, I did some fun review that practiced citing text evidence using our novel. Do you use Roll and Retell in your classroom? I first saw the sheet on Pinterest, I believe it is from Fun In First. I loved the idea, but the questions were a little too basic for my Smarties in the sixth grade, so I created an upgraded version. My students loved being able to sit in groups and play. We did three different rounds using the myths we have been focusing on with our Lightning Thief books: Promethius, Medusa and Athena, and then our novel. I put a die in these cool containers that I had purchased from Staples in August. I like using them because my dice don't go flying all over the room. I increased the difficulty as we played, first asking them to cite one piece of evidence for each roll, and then as many as 3 pieces when we got into the novel. I loved what I was hearing from groups! They were talking, they were arguing their points, and they were enjoying group discussion. I couldn't ask for anything better than that! I'm linking up with one of my BBBs, Joanne over at Head Over Heels for Teaching to share this fun activity. If you are interested in the Roll and Retell, you can get a copy of it {HERE}, it's free. Have a great weekend!

KWL chart for the 21st Century

I think the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy is wrong. I agree that the taxonomy accurately classifies various types of cognitive thinking skills. It certainly identifies the different levels of complexity. But its organizing framework is dead wrong. Here's what I propose. In the 21st century, we flip Bloom's taxonomy. Rather than starting with knowledge, we start with creating, and eventually discern the knowledge that we need from it.

Explore our comprehensive collection of classroom resources, including classroom posters, engaging activities, classroom management techniques, and more. Enhance your teaching and inspire your students with these valuable insights.

Sometimes students finish their work early. Now what? Here are a few ideas… This work by Mia MacMeekin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported Lic…

Calvin & Hobbes is copyright Bill Watterson and UPS Here is a little worksheet I made for students to explore common algebra mis...

Hello Everyone! I love helping first graders express themselves through writing. For me, the first semester of first grade is all about creating a safe environment for them to feel comfortable putting their thoughts down on paper. We work on all the different ways to incorporate written expression into our day. I just love when one of my little would rather write than do anything else! Well we are now all about making our great writing even better...That means editing. I don't know about you, but it has been my experience that kids do not like going back to fix anything in their writing! Does anyone truly love editing? Hence the challenge, making editing engaging. After researching and trying different things and I think I finally came up with something that the kids can understand, use, and grow. We compared different pieces and rated them. We will use them as rubrics to compare our own writing. We learned about a few first grade friendly editing marks. We modeled editing on an old piece. Then we received out "Editing Super Visors," and special editing pens. I love to have my kids peer edit, so we got with our writing partners right away and picked a piece on which to work our editing magic. TaDah!! Engagement! Our Editing Super Visors I did put all these ideas into a micro unit about editing and rubrics. A quick set of printable rubrics with rating numbers for your own quick print and go micro unit, CLICK HERE!! Or CLICK HERE for a new and improved version of the unit!! I hope you can use some of this!! As always, if you see any typos or anything that should be fixed (or edited!! Ha Ha!) please don't hesitate to holler at me!! Thanks for stopping by for a peek! Stay tuned for more first grade fun!! Joyfully! Nancy