Minutes a Day—Mastery for a Lifetime!
As my profile states, I am a Cleveland Indians fan. Inhabitants of Northeast Ohio understand what that means. You see, we have witnessed a lot of exciting baseball in our town, and we have come REALLY close to winning it ALL. But it’s been 70 years since we’ve won a World Series. My 88-year-old mother […]
Summer Solutions Books The Simple Solutions Approach–solid instruction, daily distributed practice, and ongoing assessment–is a proven strategy that promotes mastery and ensures long-term retention. Summer Solutions provides review and practice that allows students to retain important math and language arts skills, not only over the summer break but for a lifetime. Grades 4 – 8 […]
No More “Summer Packets” All teachers are aware that summer learning loss is real. In fact, many teachers take a pro-active approach to curb that loss by creating summer reading lists or putting together “packets” of enrichment or reinforcement worksheets for kids to complete over the summer. All activities have the same goal: keep students […]
Here is a multi-layered Black History Month project that you can do with your upper elementary/middle school students. Pick the layer you’re comfortable with — or have time for — and go to town. LAYER 1 introduces students to this cream-of-the-crop website, The Undefeated 44, that has portraits and short biographical pieces of prominent African Americans. […]
Snap out of the day-to-day monotony in the classroom by planning a virtual field trip to…anywhere. Virtual field trips are a great way to enhance your curriculum and make learning more engaging. They incorporate 21st century technology in a meaningful way, provide interactive learning experiences, and expose students to places they may never have a […]
Practice test-taking skills this summer! For some middle school kids, taking a test is as scary as facing a shark. One way to ease those fears is to practice test-taking strategies. Our Summer Solutions Study Skills books provide students with note-taking and test-taking strategies that will help them once school starts again in the fall. […]
Let’s talk about poetry! World Poetry Day is March 21st! We know that poetry isn’t always students’ (or teachers’) favorite subject. Oftentimes, poetry can seem difficult to explain or difficult for students to fully understand, especially when dealing with more contemporary poetic forms—those that don’t rhyme or follow easy patterns. But don’t let these […]
Dr. Seuss isn’t just for elementary classes anymore! Do you know what’s happening March 2nd? It’s Dr. Seuss’s birthday and the National Education Association’s Read Across America Day! Dr. Seuss is one of the most celebrated children’s authors today, and most children have read his books or have had his books read to them. By […]
Presidential While a child may know all about George Washington’s incident with a cherry tree, students often struggle to put historical events into the context of their world. To these children, George Washington is a distant figure who wore a powdered wig and lived in a house without electricity. But children do understand the context […]
Watching how your students take notes can sometimes be troublesome, especially if they have no organizational method whatsoever. This doesn’t have to be the case. Teach your students to use the Cornell Note-Taking System. Developed by Dr. Walter Pauk in the 1950s at Cornell University, these notes provide a structure for students to review and […]