Education

Voice of the Educator

4 learning lessons from the garden

Spring is in full bloom, and for many of us that means a reunification with our gardens. If you enjoy working in the outdoors...

Voice of the Educator

Top tips for sharpening language skills this summer

Once the school year has ended and students are no longer in class every day, it can be difficult for them to maintain the...

Voice of the Educator

Caring connects kids

Caring connects kids to their school, their teachers, their learning, their families, their communities, to one another and to themselves. Therefore, creating and maintaining...

Voice of the Educator

Education builds character

“Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.”– Albert Schweitzer My daughter has the ideal work location. It’s...

Voice of the Educator

Enhancing real-time learning with visual technology

For decades, in-class lectures have provided a serviceable way to relay information, but times are changing. Technology is shifting how we communicate information in...

Voice of the Educator

9 tips for transitioning teens from middle school to high school

Middle school has come to an end for many students as they graduate from eighth grade and anticipate moving on to high school. Transitioning...

Voice of the Educator

Genius hour: Making time for passion in the classroom

Every student has a passion project inside, waiting to emerge if invited to do so. These dreams lie just beneath the surface, built on...

Voice of the Educator

Transforming school culture through mutual respect

After nearly a decade as a classroom teacher in Oklahoma City Public Schools, I started feeling what all educators hope to avoid: burnout. It...

Voice of the Educator

PREPS: 5 steps for electronic note-taking success

Students everywhere are taking pictures of the board. It is almost like a “get out of jail free” card when it comes to taking...

Voice of the Educator

Tenure vs. quality performance

The recent finding that California tenure laws violate students’ constitutional rights to an education and should be struck down has sparked a debate that...

Voice of the Educator

3 ways to make the common core work for special education

For students with disabilities, the Common Core State Standards have the potential to support access to inclusive education, rather than an education based on...

Voice of the Educator

Tips for supporting instructional coaches

Have you ever been coached? Coaches can impact form, structure, content and meaning, regardless of the field in which they coach. I am blessed...

Voice of the Educator

Editor’s Choice Content Award: June

SmartBlog on Education’s monthly content award recognizes content written by educators, for educators that inspires readers to engage, innovate and discuss. SmartBrief Education editors...

Voice of the Educator

The perfect scenario?

“It is not the answer that enlightens but the question.”– Eugène Ionesco What if one day teachers walked into their classrooms and all their...

Voice of the Educator

Maintaining balance

For most of us in the field of education, summer is a time that we wait for all year. During the months of July...

Voice of the Educator

A tale of two CTEs

A recent high-school graduate and a credit-recovery teacher from Sweet Home High School in Oregon share their insights on career and technical education. Shela’s...

Voice of the Educator

The power of digital student portfolios

This past spring, I was asked to substitute teach in one of our first-grade classrooms. There were no guest teachers available that day so,...

Voice of the Educator

Tips for effective classroom observations

One of the time-honored practices of school leaders is to visit classrooms and conduct teacher observations. These visits are intended to provide teachers with...

Voice of the Educator

Twitter connects learning inside, outside the classroom

Conversations inside and outside of the kindergarten class begin on the first day through the use of Twitter. Twitter has been a way for...

Voice of the Educator

10 time management tips for teachers

As someone who worked in education for several years, I can tell you that one of my biggest obstacles was time — as in,...

Voice of the Educator

Digital distraction in the modern classroom

When discussing my classroom cell phone policy with students at the beginning of the school year, I made what proved to be a mistake....

Voice of the Educator

Consumer, creator … what’s next?

It is clear that education is going through an evolution/revolution due to technology and open sourcing. Our students have opportunities to do, make and...

Voice of the Educator

Personalized literacy: Insights from champions in the field

Personalized learning is the latest buzzword in the field of education technology. At the recent ISTE conference, it was clear that with the rapid...

Voice of the Educator

No problem with problems

As a principal awaiting the start of school, I knew one thing for certain: There would be a lot problems in the year ahead....

Voice of the Educator

Empowerment: The key to excellent teachers in schools

How do we ensure that we have the best teachers in all of our schools? We’ve already taken the first step by acknowledging that...

Voice of the Educator

The soothing effects of song

Music and song are some of the most underused educational techniques. We know that musical intelligence is one of the eight identified intelligences of...

Voice of the Educator

Back to school: It’s what’s up front that counts!

School started this week. Excitement reigns — or maybe not. Schools and classrooms are a beehive of activity. Books are distributed. Bulletin boards are...

Voice of the Educator

Going “all-in” to pursue 21st century education

When California’s state legislature voted to provide one-time revenue in support of the implementation of the Common Core State Standards and the Smarter Balanced...

Voice of the Educator

5 questions every PLC should consider

The worthwhile, monumental and ongoing challenge of ensuring that each of our students is learning has led to the widespread adoption of professional learning...

Voice of the Educator

Surviving — and thriving — in the deep end of student data

It is more important than ever that educational leaders work with and fully support their teachers. Every teacher wants to improve their practice and...

Voice of the Educator

Lessons from the fisherman’s boat

I recently had the pleasure of going fishing with three of my children on Lake Michigan. We chartered a fishing vessel and set sail...

Voice of the Educator

You can’t bully your way to bullying prevention

October is National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month. Imagine the following scenario: There was a disease that plagued the population for a long time and...

Voice of the Educator

Re-envisioning rigorous writing instruction in a common core era

This post is sponsored by Curriculum Associates Writing instruction took a back seat to reading during the No Child Left Behind era. Common core...

Voice of the Educator

Creating a culture of collaboration, not competition

As I read education blogs, news editorials and Twitter, I sometimes am struck by the “us vs. them” mentality I see between veteran and...

Voice of the Educator

How to use feedback to your advantage

We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve. — Bill Gates As a teacher, you will certainly be the...

Voice of the Educator

3 constructs to “getting” our students

Picture a classroom full of students and a lone teacher, who is riffing on some personal opinion she or he has. Now picture the...

Voice of the Educator

Learning disability or learns differently?

For those who are comforted by labels and the certainty they provide, it is difficult to embrace the idea that we can unlock the...

Voice of the Educator

Common core doesn’t have to be scary for special educators

I can hear the fear in my colleagues’ voices when they talk about the  Common Core State Standards. There is so much uncertainty surrounding...

Voice of the Educator

Common core rigor: Ways to support teacher success

This post is sponsored by Curriculum Associates The Common Core State Standards have introduced a new level of rigor to math curriculum. No longer...

Voice of the Educator

Plagiarism: An ounce of prevention

I do not enjoy being the plagiarism police with my middle-school students. For me, detecting plagiarism and determining consequences take more energy than proactively...