Videos

The Problem with Education {Better Plans or Better People?}

March 27, 2012
The Problem with Education {Better Plans or Better People?}

What are the problems with our current education system?  Is it too much testing, or not enough?  Is it a lack of funding or an excess of paperwork or too many required workshops on those professional development workdays? Is it the over-zealous, but out-of-touch, government or the central office? Do we need better plans and [...]

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Energizers!

March 15, 2012
Energizers!

Teaching Tip {And-It’s-Not-Even-a-Tuesday}:  Energizers. Looking for some fresh ideas for classroom energizers?  Need an activity that refocuses your students and provides a fun way to get out some of that extra energy that seems to be coming between them and their math problems? Consider the following several ideas from an excellent resource called Responsive Classroom. [...]

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Using Smart Phones in the Elementary Classroom

March 13, 2012
Using Smart Phones in the Elementary Classroom

Teaching Tip:  Use Smart Phones. We all know that technology continues to creep into our classrooms more and more often these days. I know that many teachers are incorporating interactive whiteboards and tablets into their daily lessons. But, I had never thought about bringing smartphones into the classroom until a teacher-friend of mine was telling [...]

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In the Face of Failure

March 11, 2012
Monday’s Motivation {A Video On Failure and Perseverance}

Sometimes even teachers fail. We try a lesson plan that leaves students more confused instead of more enlightened. We attempt to reach out to a student, only to have our efforts slapped back in our faces. We launch a new idea that crashes and burns. And, if that happens to be you today, perhaps the [...]

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Teaching Tip Tuesday: How to Organize a Teacher’s Desk

March 6, 2012
Teaching Tip Tuesday: How to Organize a Teacher’s Desk

Organization is important to effectiveness in the classroom, and there’s no place that seems to gather the mess like a teacher’s desk. Pens and broken pencils. A parent’s note that came with Johnny last Tuesday. A flier about the upcoming bake sale. Lesson plans and worksheet copies. And piles of this. And piles of that. [...]

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Dear Teacher: Be Remarkable Today!

March 1, 2012
Dear Teacher:Be Remarkable Today!

“Have you ever felt that You were supposed to do something amazing, important, outstanding? That only you can do and that you were destined for greatness? Remember when you thought…anything was possible? It is!” A few years back I found this amazing video on the website of Naomi Harm. Although designed to encourage building a small [...]

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Teaching Students About Global Poverty

February 29, 2012
Teaching Students About Global Poverty

Sometimes it’s challenging to make the issues of global poverty relevant to students in today’s classrooms. Okay, a lot of times it’s challenging. And maybe the difficulty of teaching kids who read VOGUE and watch The Bachelor to care about their global brothers and sisters who can’t read and watch their children starve feels so [...]

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Having Students Do Their Own Classroom Management

February 23, 2012
Having Students Do Their Own Classroom Management

We talk lots about positive classroom management around My Teachers Lounge, because, let’s face it, if your classroom is out of control, then learning becomes about as fictional as a flying unicorn. And so often, our default as teachers {and as parents!} is to LECTURE when the class begins to spiral into bad behavior. We [...]

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Expect the Unexpected

February 10, 2012
raising student expectations

Oftentimes, one of our greatest mistakes as teachers is that we set our expectations too low for our students. We buy into the image they are projecting as the sullen teen or the “cool” middle schooler or the trouble-making 4th grader, and we give up the fight to call them into their natural giftings. Sometimes, [...]

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Teaching Tips Tuesday {Getting Class Attention}

February 8, 2012

We all know what it’s like to walk into a class and do a song-and-dance-routine to get students’ attention. We know the frustration felt when we repeat the same directions twelve times because Johnny was flipping paper at Sam,  Tracie was whispering a BFF secret across the aisle to Sharie, and only 4% of the [...]

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