The Blog

Teachers and students alike often name the time set aside for reading aloud as their favorite time of the school day! There are so many reasons why a powerful read-aloud is so important in classrooms of any age group. Reading aloud to students exposes readers to authentic text representing a diverse range of authors and text types while building students’ knowledge about a topic of study. Reading aloud builds language and vocabulary, sparks curiosity, and provides opportuniti

I’ve listed four books below that I believe address some of the biggest struggles I’ve seen in the areas of social emotional learning this year. From student apathy to educator burnout, these are great resources for creating positive change!  

As educators begin to shift practice, it is important to build a common understanding among each other. Then when we partner with others we are speaking the same language and have the same understanding.    This month’s post is going to help you get started by answering three important questions: What is decodable text? Why is decodable text important? And Where can I find decodable readers?

Conflict resolution is an important skill to teach students. It’s important to teach children how to communicate effectively, how to problem solve, and how to manage their emotions when they have a disagreement. There are many strategies that can help with this. One strategy is to have students brainstorm a list of conflict resolution steps. This can help them become aware of the options they have when they are dealing with a disagreement.

Employability skills are a set of skills outside of technical or academic competencies that are considered imperative to being a successful employee and team member. In an effort to ensure these skills are integrated into academic settings, the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) has arranged these competencies into four categories: mindsets, work ethic, learning strategies, and social emotional learning.

As leaders during these difficult times, it can be hard to attract, hire, and retain great teachers. One way to do this is by creating a strong mentoring program at your school.  Teachers want to feel valued, connected, and supported with the difficult work they do every day. Teachers who are new to your school, both new educators and veterans alike, need a high level of support. Providing the right support can ensure that they are successful and remain valuable members

Employability skills are a set of skills outside of technical or academic competencies that are desired by potential employers and considered imperative to being a successful employee and team member. This set of skills might include things like: communication, teamwork, initiative, problem solving, planning and organizing, self-management, and more. You may have heard them referred to as “soft-skills.”

Picture books aren’t just for preschoolers and younger children, readers of all ages enjoy and learn from picture books. I LOVE picture books! They are full of rich language, beautiful illustrations and photographs, and bonus, you can typically read them in one sitting.   

This past year has certainly been traumatic for some and I think it’s safe to say that it has been stressful for most. It has me wondering how might this global experience and its many layers affect us as we reach this one-year anniversary? I posed this question to a group of teachers recently. Upon reflection, they discovered they were holding frustration, grief, resentment, and ongoing uncertainty in their minds as well as in their bodies.

We are living through an incredible time of physical and emotional disconnection. Despite technological advances created to keep us connected, we seem to be moving in the opposite direction. We’ve seen it happening for years as smartphones become the focus at dinners, video games trump family game nights, texting takes the place of phone calls, and emojis replace the use of words.

One of the enormous challenges of being a teacher is dealing with student misbehavior. It affects not only the teacher and the student involved, but the whole class as well. The goal of behavior management is to promote a positive classroom environment conducive to learning for all students. Provided below is a list of behavior management strategies that teachers can use to keep the classroom in order. Classroom management and relationship building Classroom management is of

Classroom management is the process of making sure that lessons run smoothly despite disruptive behavior by students. It is the series of actions that teachers do to create a successful learning environment. For many teachers, it is one of the most challenging aspects of teaching. In fact, some teachers leave the profession because they find it hard to manage classrooms. Professional development aims to help educators by teaching them classroom management strategies.