TL;DR: The importance and necessity of offering retakes. Tips to increase accountability in your students through your retake process. Why not offering retakes is diminishing the value of your content and your teaching. I have been there. Running down the hall to catch a student to remind them for the 12th time that day they need to meet with me during … Read More
Love Beyond the Classroom Walls: Creating Memories & Building Bonds
In This Post: 5 non-negotiables of a teacher. The value in building memories and bonds with your students. Specific examples of ways to encourage learning and build relationships. The inclusion of families. As a teacher, I have five teaching non-negotiables. Those are the five things I have pretty much kept sacred for the seventeen years I’ve been a teacher. These include: … Read More
Boost Motivation by Bringing in What Students Love
In This Post: Building intrinsic motivation in our students is incredibly valuable. An introduction to self-determination theory. How to build motivation through students’ loves. Our students, like ourselves, are human beings. And, like us, they have interests, passions, and lives outside of the walls of our classrooms. When we find ways to infuse those outside interests into our content, it … Read More
For the Love of Books
In This Post: The difference between book reports and book reviews. Eighteen new ways to engage your students with books! For the love of books! If you love to read, at some point you will want to share a book you love with others. You may already do this by talking about books with friends. If you want to share … Read More
Using Conferences for Grading Students
In This Post The struggle of quantifying mastery with a letter or percent. Grading conferences as a solution to this struggle! Steps to set up grading conferences in your classroom & communicate about them to stakeholders. Feedback from students on grading conferences. In a mastery learning classroom, determining student quarter or final grades can be difficult. How do you assign … Read More