Looking for gift ideas for your classroom or home? Here are my go-to gift guides as well as places kids might be interested in giving some money.
Year: 2017
3 Things You Can Give Your Students (That Don’t Cost Anything)
As the holidays approach, few teachers can afford to buy each student a gift – but we all have the power to give students something meaningful that doesn’t cost a thing. Here are three ideas…
Stretching Students
I’ve been revisiting this lovely excerpt from Carol Ann Tomlinson’s article “Meeting Needs in Regular Classroom” and a few words really stood out to me…
Becoming A Meddler In The Middle
Here’s a reading assignment: Erika McWilliam’s “From Sage to Guide to Meddler.” This paper discuses how we can get in the middle of our students’ learning, creating productive struggle by allowing kids to sit in their own confusion longer than they might like.
Do You Know the Nuances of Mindset?
Before you implement an educational theory like Mindset, Grit, or Multiple Intelligences, make sure to read the original work, understand the limitations, and know the most common misunderstandings.
Torrance’s Manifesto for Children
My friend Brian introduced me to Torrance’s Manifesto for Children – and I wish I had seen it decades ago!
Ira Glass on Perfectionism
For people who do not suffer from perfectionist tendencies, it can be hard to understand the crippling feeling a student feels when their work doesn’t match their expectations. Ira Glass, who you know from This American Life, has a fantastic quote that gets to the heart of this problem.
Thinking From Anything’s Perspective
How a small change, with very little effort on the teacher’s part, leads to a delightfully complex task that can will get students thinking.
To Differentiate Go Faster. Or Slower.
Sometimes we need to speed up to serve gifted kids. Sometimes we need to slow down.
Why a Measurement Must Never Be the Goal
When we focus on a simple measurement to guide a complex goal, that measurement becomes the goal, and the measurement starts to work against the real goal.