**This activity is not currently available on my Teachers Pay Teachers store as the timeline from National Geographic is not active at this time** One of the most difficult aspects of teaching history is making it relevant. If a student doesn’t have a natural interest in a subject, it can get really dry, really quickly. … Read more
The term growth mindset is on fire in educational circles today. But how does one go about teaching growth mindset? What does growth mindset actually mean? The true definition of a growth mindset has been investigated for decades. With the original intent of researching how individuals responded to failure in mind, Dr. Carol Dweck was … Read more
Over the past few years, “testing” has become a bit of a dirty word in education. What used to be for placement or just checking to make sure students were hitting certain benchmarks has become an orchestrated production. Different states have different requirements, but the sheer volume of testing has increased greatly. With the focus … Read more
Throughout our brain breaks series, we have been discussing various ways to incorporate brain breaks into the classroom. We have discussed books (ad), classroom activities, and places like YouTube. There is one place that we haven’t discussed, and it is versatile in more ways than just with brain breaks. It is by using an Amazon … Read more
Kindergarten is such a fun age. As each school year progresses, the pure desire to learn and the love that is exerted from these children can make anyone who witnesses this happens heart burst. However, anybody who has been to any kindergarten class with several students in it knows one thing: these children are not … Read more
Odds are, no matter what topic you’re discussing or what grade levels you teach, you will not have 100% of your students master the skill the first time you teach it. This isn’t because we’re all terrible teachers; it’s because students learn in different ways and at different paces. This means that you will always … Read more
I still remember the exact sound. It was a Tuesday in late October, second period, my 9th-grade world history class. We were mid-discussion about the Treaty of Versailles, and for one of those rare, precious moments, nearly every student was locked in. Hands were going up. Students were responding to each other without my prompting. … Read more
The classroom discipline plan you used five years ago probably won’t cut it today. I have worked with many K-12 teachers over the past several years, watching talented educators struggle with behavior problems that their training never prepared them for. The old model of posting classroom rules, listing consequences, and hoping that punitive measures would … Read more
School budgets are stretched thinner than most taxpayers realize. A single classroom set of calculators can wipe out an entire department’s discretionary fund for the year. A class set of novels for a literature unit often comes out of the teacher’s own paycheck. I know this because I lived it. The natural reaction is frustration, … Read more
If you have ever subbed, you know that classroom management for substitute teachers can be a struggle. I may train teachers now, but I started somewhere else. From 2005 to 2007, I was a substitute. Both kinds. First, I was the “call me in the morning if you need me” kind…rolling out of bed at … Read more
You have felt it: that specific dread when a lesson flops. Not the kind where kids just groan, but the kind where they check out completely, shuffling papers with dead eyes while you talk yourself hoarse, wondering why you spent four hours on that slideshow. I know that feeling because I lived it. It was 2007, my … Read more
Before we talk about how to use classroom management hand signals, we need to talk about why so many teachers try them and then give up within two weeks. The reason isn’t that the strategy fails. It’s that most advice you find online treats hand signals like a simple hack: pick some signs, post a poster, and boom, silence. That might … Read more