Classroom Strategies
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5 Strategies to increase family engagement
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if click through and make a purchase. Parent involvement and family engagement. Are they the same? Although parent involvement and family engagement sound interchangeable, their meanings are actually quite different. Parent involvement often means communicating with parents about how they can be involved in the learning process whereas family engagement involves a deeper more meaningful relationship between schools and families. I will help to establish an understanding of the differences between parent involvement and family engagement and also to demonstrate how both can be used in conjunction to create a…
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5 Strategies for differentiated instruction in the primary classroom
What is differentiated instruction? Differentiated instruction is a teaching framework that involves meeting the needs of every student. Every student is different and every student has different needs they need to be met in the classroom. Differentiated instruction provides students with different avenues of learning with the goal of supporting all learners in the classroom. There are many types of teaching strategies that can help you achieve the differentiation your students need. How do I differentiate instruction in the primary classroom? In the primary classroom, we see many different learning styles, which can provide a challenge when determining how to differentiate. In my kindergarten classroom, my students’ skills differ dramatically.…
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Tips for a First Year Teacher
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, which means at no additional cost to you, I may receive a commision for items purchased. But don’t worry, I never recommend products that I don’t believe in. I remember when I landed my first teaching job after college. I was so excited and couldn’t wait to get into my new classroom so I could put up all my Pinterest inspired decor. After student teaching, I thought I had everything under control and knew exactly what I was doing. After all, how much different could having my own classroom be from student teaching? In fact, it was very different. I was completely unprepared…
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How to Regain Control of Your Classroom!
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, which means at no additional cost to you, I may receive a commision for items purchased. But don’t worry, I never recommend products that I don’t believe in. During my first year of teaching, I had an unruly class, to say the least. These students were so difficult, I often had subs either walk out in the middle of the day or leave a note that explained that they would never come back to the school, let alone my classroom. One sub said a student stood up on his desk and refused to listen to anything she said. I wasn’t shocked, but I…
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Holidays in the Classroom
The holiday season is quickly approaching and your students can feel it. Their attention span is shortening and your trusty behavior management tricks are not working like they used to. We love our students, but the holiday season in the classroom can be what nightmares are made of. Your stress level is high, your to-do list is growing, and your students are jumping out of their seats with excitement. Fortunately, there are ways to make the holiday season enjoyable again without completing losing your sanity. Behavior management and procedure review. Start by examining your behavior management strategies. Sometimes at this time of year, we need to step back and determine…
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Engaging students with mystery games
Engaging lessons are critical for student success. Research has shown that students remember more and retain more information through hands-on, engaging material. One strategy to help students become more engaged in their learning is to get students up and moving. The mystery games I create do exactly that. From the introduction, students’ imaginations are captivated and they’re eager to participate. In these lessons, the teacher introduces the mystery by reading an introductory story with just a small amount of information to get students thinking. There are several ways to conduct the mysteries and these are the three ways I’ve seen it work best. How to play the game: Students are…
