Photo courtesy of thegoldguys.blogspot.com/ As an elementary school student, I attended a Montessori school and I remember playing with math manipulatives and talking about math. I had no idea if I was behind developmentally or not and I never thought about it either. When I began attending public school in third grade, I immediately […]
Got Reluctant Readers?
I don’t know about everyone else but we have a pervasive problem with students refusing to read on their own time. This causes a problem once they come back to class because they can’t participate and you can see how that spirals into some very unsuccessful lessons and makes it very difficult to do group […]
Perseverance and High Stakes Testing
Every time I have a discussion about high stakes testing, it always ends with the same conclusion; there is very little wrong with student skills but they lack persistence. If they don’t read the passage then they will not be able to respond thoughtfully. If they don’t attempt a problem then they can’t possibly get […]
Gamification in Book Discussions
As we continue to struggle with student engagement, gamification has become an intriguing way to make a boring activity more enticing to 21st century learners. We used this game with 11th grade students reading One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest , by Ken Kesey in hopes of increasing their level of participation during book […]