Exciting lesson ideas, book lists, videos, classroom strategies, and reproducibles in a daily blog by mentor teachers
For many of you, what your students do outside of your classroom may also cross your mind. You follow their successes and sometimes their disasters. You celebrate and mourn with them over decisions they make that mold the young people they are...
Survey any 6th grade class in the nation and I am positive they will all agree that The Hunger Games series is awesome. This title has so affected my students that when the final rounds of classroom test prepping came up, we decided to create an...
Student response systems have been making a big splash in classrooms around the nation for a while. As you know, they provide teachers instant feedback on learning gains and student retention of material. However, the price can be a bit...
Even with all of the unpredictable weather, spring is definitely my favorite season. I can’t think of a better time of year to teach all aspects of weather and the atmosphere. When I begin this unit of study each year, I tend to focus quite a bit...
For this week’s blog post, I'm offering suggestions on planning and organizing for state testing. Click through for my “Top 6 List” for state testing planning and organization.
Harnessing the sun’s energy is a clean, effective way to produce heat energy. Demonstrating that in the classroom, however, takes some careful planning and ingenuity. In this post, I show how to challenge your students to get creative and produce...
Analyzing the properties and characteristics of polyhedrons can be challenging even for the most discriminating mathematician. Using isometric dot paper to ease into the world of polyhedrons is a good place to start. See how I use it in my...
Let’s face it, television shows like CSI remain extremely popular with the middle grade demographic, so what better way to engage students and get them excited about science right out of the gate? See how I teach scientific thinking through...
As a math and science teacher, I try to have games and puzzles on hand for students to play. At the beginning of the year, I introduce students to several of the more popular games and sets of materials that I enjoy using in class, and inevitably...
One of the final steps I take in preparing my 6th grade students for stretching their perspective and tackling the volume and surface area of polyhedral figures is to create polygon graffiti on the walls of our school’s hallways. See how this...
