If your students are like mine, they are always hungry -- food is always on their brains. It makes sense, though, when you think about the basic hierarchy of needs. Maslow says that lower-level basic needs like food, water, and safety must be met first before higher needs can be fulfilled. Of course, students can't fully concentrate on learning when they are hungry. However, for many reasons, teachers can't be expected to take on the role of fulfilling that need for every student each and every day; that's not really the goal of this post. I … [Read more...]
End-of-Year Reflection: Top Five Classroom Success Stories of 2018
It seems to me that 2018 has been quite the long year... but then again it does feel like I was just rounding the corner of 2018 not too long ago, and here we are already at 2019. One of the most important things we can do as teachers is reflect, and so that's why I love this annual blog post. It's been my new year tradition for the past several years (2015, 2016, 2017), and choosing only five moments is always so hard, but here goes: My top five classroom success stories of 2018! This year in review... 1) Read-o-Lution: Reading is the … [Read more...]
Host a Gatsby Party: End of Year Literary-Themed, Text-Based Classroom Parties
It’s that time of year – the end of the year. And that means classroom parties. My students always ask for a party of some sort, so several years ago I decided I would allow them to have a party – on one condition – it must be literature based. We always study The Great Gatsby at the end of the semester, and, of course, it doesn’t get much better than that to inspire a party. If you are thinking about doing the same, here are a couple of ideas for planning your Gatsby party! (These tips can be easily applied to hosting a literature-based … [Read more...]
