Engaging the student, utilizing knowledge of various senses, taking advantage of free online tools, my son’s fourth grade social studies teacher did all these things when she showed the kids the following in class today:

I was talking with a parent of a fifth grader who is attending our local “gifted zone center” program. Her daughter was assigned a paper that needed to be two pages, double spaced. Her daughter does not type well, so this assignment was taking a while. At one juncture, the parent noticed that her daughter [...]

Better Lesson is a social networking site for teachers and other educators – including home educators –  to share curriculum material. In fact, an educator can upload and share a full 180 days worth of lessons. Check it out, and avoid re-inventing the wheel! This site looks great and seems to have great potential. DISCLAIMER: [...]

This list from an article in the July 2009 ASCD Educational Leadership magazine includes books by age level that are good for teaching social responsibility. If anyone has used any of these or done any specific activities with their kids to encourage social responsibility, I’d love to hear about it! – Heather

PBS has done it again! A new site, called PBS Teachers, has activities, resources, webinars, discussions, etc. etc. etc. for teachers (and parents who teach!) of kids from pre-K to grade 12! Check it out and enjoy! – Heather

“In this lesson, students explore the differences between e-mail and letter writing by contrasting and identifying different forms, and experimenting with their own e-mail and letter compositions.” Check it out at ReadWriteThink*. * ReadWriteThink is a website from the International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English. It’s purpose is to provide educators [...]

1. Drafting all about IDEAS – it is a beginning, not an end! 2. Remember, the writing process is cyclical – you can always go back to the brainstorming phase if you need to! 3. While writing a draft, leave wide margins, whether you are writing by hand or typing! 4. It is alright to [...]

When I took Latin in high school, I just loved it (ok, I’m a Latin geek) because it was like a wonderful puzzle that allowed me to chip away at the English language. With each new piece of vocabulary, I was gaining a key to the kingdom, so to speak, for my own language. Each [...]

“Tell me and I forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I understand.” – Chinese Proverb Constructivist learning, experiential learning, whatever you want to call good teaching where the student is intimately involved as meaning-maker is desirable for the development of true understanding. UC Davis has some wonderful resources for teachers, home [...]

Whether you send your child to public school, private school, or whether you home school, your community no doubt has some treasures – museums, historical societies, science centers, or parks. Here in Virginia, the communities are rich with such treasures, but very few take advantage of these opportunities to learn. When I conduct presentations for [...]