Confession. I avoided stations my second year of teaching because they caused me so much stress my first year. I even observed some great teachers implementing stations in their classrooms, but I just couldn’t quite get on board. Is it me? Is it my “group of students”? Nope. I just needed a strategy that worked […]

Sometimes you just need a fun activity that doesn’t revolve around a Chromebook. Let students unplug with an escape room. Not quite brave enough for all that? Don’t worry, I can help. Here are 6 tips that will help you run a fun (yes, even for you) escape room!  Reference Sheet Quick, printable version of […]

I’ve had my fair share of struggles with student self-assessments. I was really excited about starting them, and then it flopped. A big, huge waste of time…until I came up with a better design.  Read about how to Implement Get the most out of your student self-assessments. READ NOW Designing your Self-Assessment Prompts I recommend […]

“I already know all this stuff” “I don’t need to study” “I’m gonna ace this test” Sound familiar? Let me guess. You heard this just before a student bombed your unit test. I sure did. My 7th grade students were always really confident during study time, but then we struggled with our test grades.  I […]

Gallery Walks are a great way to get students out of their seats and moving around. This is definitely a benefit to all age groups. I found that my 7th graders preferred this over doing a regular worksheet any day. The thing is…it’s basically the same thing as a worksheet. It’s just not quite as […]

Let me share two strategies that I have tried and tested in my own 7th grade classroom. These two strategies are great for differentiation, but they’re also great if you’re just looking for something different.  I’m suggesting you try using digital interactive word banks and word bank walls.   These two strategies are very different. It […]

When I was an Instructional Technology Coach, I saw a lot of wonderful things teachers were doing with technology. I also saw a lot of mistakes. I was the very first Instructional Technology Coach of my district, so teachers weren’t used to having someone coming into their schools advocating for (or “pushing”) technology. Many were […]

The Basics of Differentiation If you’re here, you probably know the “basics” of differentiation. I just want to point out that differentiation can be applied to different phases of learning.  These phases are: The content (how students receive the information) The process (your teaching and their practice) The product (how students deliver information) The learning […]

Reteaching in the middle school social studies classroom doesn’t have to be complicated. I know most of us want to reteach skills or concepts our students haven’t quite mastered yet, but it can be difficult to find the time. I’ve got 3 strategies that you can use to reteach, even if you don’t have a […]

It’s inevitable. There will be a time in your teaching career when you will realize that you’re running out of time in a unit. You’ll realize that your assessment is fast-approaching, and your students are not ready. What do you do? There are so many perspectives on what to do when you’re running out of […]