General Teaching

Like most years, my students seem to believe that the learning ends in my classroom about a week before the end of classes arrives. Sadly (but fortunately!) for them, this is definitely not the case. I am most assuredly a "to the last drop" kind of teacher when it comes to using all of the instructional time. Nothing perked my students up more than uttering those 2 words (competition and prizes!) as I explained the project!

A quick brain break turned into an engaging activity to bring in new readers!

"Miss... no offense, but why are we doing this?" Sometimes students are afraid to ask this question because they're worried that they'll offend me and my planning, but this is such a wonderful question to be asked. Understanding why we are doing something is not only valuable for their understanding, but so important for student motivation.

A brain break, in my definition at least, is a 5 or so minute activity that breaks them away from what we were working on, and gives their brain a rest. The activity can be wholly unrelated to what we are learning, or not. The main point is to do something else.

This year I'm lucky enough to be teaching year 9 students who I had when they were in year 7, and it's so exciting to see how much they have matured over the years. This week we set ourselves up for success by...