Teaching

Every Classroom Is A Team And Every Teacher Is A Coach contributed by Molly Bruzewski, Ed.S. This is a 2-part series on strategies for promoting a team approach to academic achievement and high-performance teaching. Strategy 1 for…

6 Messages Every Student Should Hear On The First Day Of School by Terry Heick & Jackie Gerstein Updated July 23, 2018 For specific training and professional development around technology integration, contact TeachThought…

The Perfect Test: 32 Characteristics Of Quality Assessment by Terry Heick Nothing is perfect, but we can dream. So let's dream about assessment. What Is An Assessment? First, what is an assessment? A measurement? A…

10 Indicators Of Efficient Teaching by TeachThought Staff Notice that we didn’t use the more vague 'good teacher' phrasing. That’s an important distinction, because here we’re talking about something a bit more clinical. …

Too Much Sitting? 5 Movement Strategies That Get Kids Thinking contributed by Kenny McKee Each day more research confirms the link between movement and learning. Brain researcher David Sousa claims that physical activity increases…

20 Collaborative Learning Tips And Strategies For Teachers contributed by Miriam Clifford This post has been updated from a previous post. There is an age old adage that says “two heads are better than one." Consider…

4 Key Takeaways From “What School Could Be” by Drew Perkins, Director of TeachThought PD I first met Ted Dintersmith a few years ago in a meeting in downtown Louisville, KY (TeachThought is located in Louisville) to which I was…

25 Tricks To Improve A Boring Lesson contributed by Lisa Chesser Over the years, I’ve noticed how one question can change the dynamics of any situation. Everything might be moving along quite nicely at the dinner table,…

50 Resources For Teaching With Bloom's Taxonomy by TeachThought Staff Bloom’s Taxonomy was a remarkable attempt to create a system of learning that focuses on how people learn and organize content around those natural aptitudes.…

How To Give Students Specific Feedback That Actually Helps Them Learn contributed by Justin Chando To tell a student ‘great job’ or ‘this needs work’ is a missed opportunity. Everyone loves to hear they did a great job. And perhaps…

The Science Of Classroom Design (Graphic) by TeachThought Staff There is an art and science to teaching, and certainly to curriculum and assessment. And classroom management. And student engagement. And literally everything else…

16 Books About Learning Every Teacher Should Read by TeachThought Staff In the age of blogging and social media, is there still room for books? Of course there is! While digital content is handy and accessible, many of the issues…

Are You Creating Confident Students? by Terry Heick One approach to great teaching is facilitation: decentering yourself. Standing to the side, out of the students' way, and moving to more of a facilitative role of teaching. And…

Creating Student-Centered Learning Profiles: What Great Teachers Know About Their Students by TeachThought Staff For Professional Development or consulting around this or other ideas you read about on TeachThought, contact us.…

Why Students Don't Do Their Homework--And What You Can Do About It by Dr. Jennifer Davis Bowman ‘That was homework?’ ‘That’s due today?’ ‘But... it was the weekend.’ We hear a lot of stuff when students don’t do their…

 How To Deal With A Difficult Parent by Terry Heick You'd heard about this parent from other teachers. That this parent was a handful. Rude. Combative. Aggressive. Even litigious. In response, you worry, if just a little. You…

What It Means To 'Teach' by Terry Heick What does it mean to "teach"? I've been meaning to write this post for weeks, but a dozen side projects have kept me from doing so. It started out as an actual academic definition, but…

How To Teach History Through Hamilton contributed by Kevin Cline, Former National History Teacher Of The Year After teaching history for over 13 years, I’ve lost count of the times I’ve heard a student say “History is boring!”  …

102 Brain-Based Learning Resources For, Well, Brain-Based Teaching contributed by Sara Bass Researchers in neuroscience, psychology and education are uncovering new information about how brains learn best at an unbelievable pace. We have…

20 Questions To Reflect On Your Teaching This Year So Next Year Is Better by Terry Heick I don't know how your school year is going and/or 'went' (depending on when you're reading this). Maybe it was amazing. Maybe you think it…

The 6 Stages Of A Teaching Career by Terry Heick I've been thinking about this, and there really is a life cycle to teaching. Not every teacher will experience every stage--or every stage to the same degrees, anyway. Some may…

When Principal Leadership Is Missing At Your School contributed by Tamara Fyke A few years ago, while working with the Center for Safe & Supportive Schools at Vanderbilt University, there was a question I frequently received from…

What Is The Purpose Of School? by Terry Heick ed note: this post has been updated from previous publishing The idea of ‘work’ is present in most modern educational discussion almost entirely under the terms ‘career…

Why You Should Be Tagging Your Curriculum by Terry Heick Ed note: this post has been updated and republished from a previous version You probably should be tagging your curriculum. It's 2018. It's time. Tagging is is the…