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Standards and guidelines are great resources for lesson planning
Wanting to use best teaching practices and develop my students’ science thinking to the best of their capability, I look at what governments and curriculum developers think should be happening in an early childhood classroom, and what topics should...
By Peggy Ashbrook
Blog Post
From the Early Years photo cache (click the pic for more)....
By Peggy Ashbrook
Blog Post
Even if you’re not a member of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), you can access their 2009 NECC conference blog. The National Educational Computing Conference is scheduled for June 28-July 1 in Washington, DC, and ...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
I just finished my first year in the classroom. It was a challenge, but I learned a lot. With the end of the school year approaching, do you have any tips for what should I think about or prepare for next year? —Rene, South Bend, Indiana...
By MsMentorAdmin
Blog Post
One of the arguments against year-round schools is that “kids need a break.” But isn’t it ironic that by the end of July, we see articles in newspapers or blogs on the topic of what to do when kids say they’re bored?...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
Sometimes you see a new application on the web and think “This is cool!” – and then as a teacher you wonder “How can I use this?” I recently was introduced to Wordle, a free, Internet-based application. Wordle takes wor...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
I have the opportunity next year to co-teach two science classes with a special education teacher. Approximately one-third of each class will be special education students. We’re both interested but a little apprehensive. How do we make this wo...
By MsMentorAdmin
Blog Post
Certain trees in my neighborhood are currently supporting populations of growing Eastern Tent Moth caterpillars. Children were excited to tell me about the “nest” they saw “way high” up in the tree (about 15 feet up)....
By Peggy Ashbrook
Blog Post
What shape is your bubble wand? Children and making choices
From the Early Years photo cache (click on the pics for more). The children were happy that I had enough of each color pipe cleaner (known as “fuzzy sticks” nowadays) that everyone could choose their favorite color. We wanted to make bubbles and ...
By Peggy Ashbrook
Blog Post
For a project I’m working on, I wanted to revisit what I know about cooperative learning. When I Googled the topic, among the many resources I found was one from a professional development series Concept to Classroom, produced by Thirteen Ed O...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
It seems like it’s getting harder to motivate students. What can we do? — Roseanna, Beaverton, Oregon I’ve found we cannot motivate others; motivation comes from within the individual. We can threaten, cajole, plead, or reward stude...
By MsMentorAdmin
Blog Post
Can you tell that it will rain soon by the way the air smells? Do you like the smell of snow? I like the way the air smells just as a badly needed rain begins—it makes me think of the earth exhaling as the water soaks in (but this could be a miscon...
By Peggy Ashbrook
Blog Post
It’s not hard to get young students interested in the earth sciences that explain and describe the world around them. And yet for many students, the upper elementary and middle school grades are the last time they’ll be exposed to earth s...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
When I saw the theme for this issue, Teaching with the Community, what came to mind was students visiting community resources such as museums, zoos, and parks on field trips or students and teachers using the community as a classroom. But the article...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
This may seem like a simple thing, but I get requests for a considerable number of letters of recommendation every year. I suspect you do, too. I almost always say yes–partly out of being somewhat flattered, I’ll admit, but also because t...
By AnnC