Teaching

What Is Really, Truly 'Best For The Kids'? by Terry Heick What's best for the kids. I remember hearing this phrase when I was handed a towering stack of fluency probes that represented about 3-4 hours of "in addition to" work…

10 Specific Ideas To Gamify Your Classroom by Mike Acedo In today’s classroom, educators are constantly required to mold their teaching methods to give students the best opportunity to succeed. It is not only imperative for students to…

20 Simple Assessment Strategies You Can Use Every Day contributed by Saga Briggs This post has been updated from a previous version The ultimate goal of teaching is understanding.  But sometimes it’s easier to talk than to…

A Simple, Open-Ended Assignment: Explain When You're Creative by Danielle Shanley, Director of Curriculum & Instruction for the New Milford Public Schools Below is an assignment recently given to a 10th grade classroom. The…

32 Tips For Building Relationships With Students by TeachThought Staff Building relationships with students isn’t always simple, but it’s crucial to the well-being and academic growth of all students. Part of the reason it’s…

'Information Flow' As A Litmus Test For Quality Teaching contributed by Lee Carroll, PhD I’ve been thinking about Teacher Appraisals for years when finally it hit me like a flash—why can’t they be simpler? What Are They Worth?…

10 Tips For Getting Started With Mindfulness In The Classroom by Kelly April Tyrrell and TeachThought Staff ed note: this post has been updated from previous publishing While the scientists at the University of…

27 Teacher Actions That Help Promote Valid Assessment Data by TeachThought Staff There is often talk about assessment--its forms, frequency, and the integration of gleaned data to revise planned instruction. Formative versus…

15 Apps & Websites For Teaching Math Online contributed by Jennifer Smith With the increasing popularity of STEM-focused learning more and more students are taking on more and more challenging math courses. However, for…

27 Characteristics Of Authentic Assessment by Grant Wiggins, Authentic Education Ed note: This post by the late Grant Wiggins has been republished from a previous post. Please visit Authentic Education to support the work his wife and…

8 Ways For Teachers To Save Time In The Classroom contributed by Lila Daniels Teachers think about a lot during the course of a school day -- from planning lessons tied to the core curriculum to making sure Jimmy gets home on the right…

A Classroom Of Proficiency: 6 Factors To Guide Your Teaching by Terry Heick First, a definition. An academic classroom is one where the primary goal is to promote proficiency of academic standards. Everything else, while appreciated…

Editor's Note: We often look at the qualities and characteristics of good teaching and learning, including the recent following pieces: How A Good Teacher Becomes Great   What You Owe Your Students   Ten Secrets To Surviving As A…

How To Get Along With Teachers That Think Differently Than You by Terry Heick While the call to innovate learning is strong, it isn’t an easy process for the classroom teacher even if they have strong understanding, resources, and…

3 Simple Ways To Create A More Positive Classroom Atmosphere by TeachThought Staff Here are two questions to think about as you reflect on your daily instruction. When students enter my room, are they happy to be here?…

27 Ways To Promote Intrinsic Motivation In The Classroom by TeachThought Staff We've talked about the definition of intrinsic motivation in the past. We've also talked about some basic ways to improve student motivation. This time,…

Establishing A Culture Of "Can" In Your Classroom by Terry Heick The long-term output of any school should be not just proficient students, but enabled learners. An "enabled" learner can grasp macro views, uncover micro details, ask…

What Differentiation Is--And Is Not: The Definition Of Differentiation by TeachThought Staff For teacher's and administrators, a useful definition of differentiated instruction is "adapting content, process, or product" according to a…

How To Burn Yourself Out As A Teacher by Terry Heick Several years ago, we published a post titled, Why Good Teachers Quit. Tens of thousands of social shared and scores of comments--later, it's pretty clear that this idea…

Many, Many Examples Of Essential Questions by Terry Heick Essential questions are, ask Grant Wiggins defines, ‘essential' in the sense of signaling genuine, important and necessarily-ongoing inquiries." These are grapple-worthy,…

27 Things Teachers (Have To) Do Well by TeachThought Staff What's a teacher? What kinds of things should a 21st century be able to do?  How about with an iPad? What's the purpose of school? These are the kinds of questions…

50 Alternatives To Lecturing by TeachThought Staff Ed note: This post is promoted by SEU'S online masters in education programs. SEU simply asked us to write about how learning is changing and the updated kinds of things teachers need…

30 Lessons For Teachers From Dr. Seuss by TeachThought Staff Dr. Seuss is gold--whimsical and visually interesting traipses through surreal worlds, and always full of life advice. And life advice is learning advice, and learning…

7 Characteristics Of Teachers Who Effectively Use Technology by TeachThought Staff Ed note: This post has been updated with an updated visual from Sylvia Duckworth, who took our graphic from alwaysprepped.com (now getalma) post and…