What is Project Based Learning? Project Based Learning: Explained. “Project Based Learning is a systematic teaching method that engages students in learning knowledge and skills through an extended inquiry process structured around complex, authentic questions and carefully designed products and tasks.” (Markham, Larmer, and Ravitz (2003)) At HCSS, Project Based Learning is an approach we take to instruction that engages …
Managing Teacher Workload During the Regular School Day When I first started teaching in 2007, I stayed after school hours grading and schlepped piles of papers home each weekend and school breaks. While my husband watched football on Sundays, I spent the day in our bedroom watching TV surrounded by books, papers, red pens, and highlighters. I also ran the …
In “The Disintegrating Student,” Dr. Jeannine Jannot provides helpful suggestions to parents to understand today’s teenagers’ struggles. She describes the disintegrating student as someone with a lot of potential but who can not succeed due to distractions. A disintegrated student can not focus on schoolwork, procrastinates all the time, and is crushed under high expectations from parents and teachers. In …
Becoming a Massachusetts teacher takes more than caring about children, graduating from college, or knowing your subject matter. To become a certified teacher in Massachusetts you must pass the Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure (MTEL). The MTEL are a series of exams which include communication and literacy skills, as well as tests of subject matter knowledge. All paths to teacher …
In his book FOCUS, Mike Schmoker argues that focusing on what is essential (instead of continuing to adopt new methods for school improvement) will decrease the achievement gap. He argues that there are three “essential” areas to improve in schools: What is essential? What we teach -coherent curriculum How we teach – structured lessons Authentic literacy – purposeful reading and …
The book Grading Smarter, Not Harder: Assessment Strategies That Motivate Kids and Help Them Learn by Myron Dueck contains lots of great ideas about grading. Some of these ideas may work well in our school, while others may not. I am here to outline some of the ideas presented in this book, and to open the discussion for the true …
College is expensive. Luckily there are programs that can help to mitigate the cost of an education, and I am here to talk specifically about teacher loan forgiveness. Federal Student Aid created a program that applies to teachers who meet certain eligibility criteria, forgiving up to $17,500 of student loans. Read on to learn about eligibility requirements, and how to …
Some people know from the start that they want to work in education. Maybe they had a teacher whose passion for their subject was so influential, and they want to spread the love of their subject to other students in a similar way. Upon graduating from high school they head off to college and begin their higher education, taking education …
Teacher Licensure: A Program Off the Traditional Path Read More »
A Reflection on the Grading of Student Achievement Several years ago, I read a young adult fictional novel that I think every teacher and school administrator would find useful to read, reflect, and discuss. The Report Card by Andrew Clements was written in 2004. Mr. Clements is actually a resident of the state of Massachusetts, however, the story is set …
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Data on student academic outcomes during the pandemic show that students (and other underserved populations) suffered academic deficits in subjects such as reading and arithmetic (Bond et al., 2020). During the epidemic, many instructors battled to keep their students engaged. To be clear, this problem did not arise out of nowhere during remote education; many professors struggled to engage students …