Not Your Mama’s Grading and Reporting

Grading and reporting is a topic I have dreaded discussing for years. It is the proverbial Pandora’s Box. Basically, when it comes to grading and reporting, everyone has an opinion on the “best” approach.   In my own undergraduate work related to education, this is something that was not explicitly addressed. I had limited responsibility…

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The Human Connection

  “Be somebody who makes everybody feel like a somebody.”  -Kid President While visiting with my mom, my daughter took out her phone and her nimble fingers went to work, quickly answering a text from a friend. She went on automatic pilot, tuning us out, as our inter-generational visit quickly came to a halt. My…

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I Feel Your Pain

  “Empathy is about finding echoes of another person in yourself.”  – Mohsin Hamid Have you ever been outside with your students and all of a sudden you see a rogue kickball come flying by?  You automatically cringe and feel the pain of the child who was boinked on the head with the flying sphere.…

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Turning the Table

“I’ve taught you everything I am to teach you this year.  I’ve taught you new content and strategies to use to understand that content.  Now it’s time for you to choose what you would like to learn more about and use what I’ve taught you this year.” How does this sound to you?  Interested?  Here’s…

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Math Stretches

Runners stretch before a race, so that their muscles are warm and ready to perform at optimum levels.  Just like those athletes, our students need to warm-up to get their brains focused and ready for quality thinking and learning.  Math Warm-ups are an important component of Laney Sammons’ Guided Math framework. When we give our…

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Training the Mind to Think

“Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.”  – Albert Einstein At one time, the expectation for an effective classroom climate was one where students were expected to sit quietly, listening to the imparting of knowledge – the outpouring of facts – the monologue from the teacher.  Now we…

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Calendar Math – Launch into Learning

“The only way to learn math is to do math.” ~ Paul Halmos A great way to start the day is with calendar math activities.  These quick interactive sparks of learning incorporate a number of math concepts in a small amount of quality time.  In a few minutes a teacher can introduce a new concept,…

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It’s All About That “Why”

“As you read today, I want you to list three facts and one opinion in your comprehension journal. Remember, a fact is an indisputable true statement and an opinion is a view or judgement formed not necessarily based on factor knowledge. We are going to transfer these to index cards later and play a game…

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Jenny's Lesson

From the desk of Carol C. . . “Learning should be a joy and full of excitement.  It is life’s greatest adventure.” –Caldwell When I first started teaching, kids didn’t take any End of Grade tests.  Instead, they took the California Achievement Test (CAT).  I don’t know what it was like at other schools, but…

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Mindful and Meaningful

From the desk of Leigh Ann . . . All week I worked with a student on being “mindful” about his words and actions.  I had encouraged him to stop and truly focus before completing a task, answering a question, or reacting to a classmate.  Then I was challenged to take an “Awareness Test” and…

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