Teacher Created Materials

It was around the year 2002. I was teaching 3rd grade in Arkansas with three good years of experience under my belt. While I can’t vividly recall the events that transpired over the course of that eight-hour day, I remember being utterly exhausted and feeling defeated with the ringing of the 3:00 pm bell.

As teachers we spend a lot of time setting rules and expectations, but there is more to that when we want our students to look like, sound like, and blossom into mathematicians. As you begin focusing your learning community on mathematics you can try these simple first steps.

Whether you are simply thinking about trying Guided Math in your classroom or are reflecting on how you might fine-tune the way you now use Guided Math, consider these five tips to make the most of the Guided Math framework.

A teacher’s language choice plays an important role in developing student-to-student discourse.  To begin, it is important to think about the questions that we ask in our math lessons. Teachers can engage students in discourse by posing genuine questions to encourage discussion and debate, and to require students to attend to the mathematics at hand while explaining and justifying their thinking. A question is genuine when the teacher does not know the answer to them and is sincerely looking to

In honor of National Poetry Month, here is an excerpt from Kwame Alexander’s popular book The Write Thing, which showcases how to use poetry in Writing Workshop to motivate and engage all students through the writing process. In the book, Kwame stresses the importance of sharing your published work.

Helping our students learn to write across the curriculum and across genres is a powerful way to provide lifelong skills. We want to give them confidence and the desire to write. But making the transformation from idea to composition can be intimidating to many students. So how can we make writing a fun learning experience? Powerful teaching strategies are the answer! Here are three things you can try tomorrow.