How to be Kind When You Feel So Mad!

These techniques guide all students to process course content and then actively demonstrate their learning.

How to Better Engage Students in Online Math Classes

Math teachers will likely need to shift teaching methods to help students thrive during distance learning. These ideas can start the process.

How to Build a Strong Virtual Classroom Community

There is light at the end of our long tunnel of social isolation, but teachers still need to focus on students’ sense of connection to their peers and school community.

How to Create Community in a Virtual Classroom

By establishing routines that address the challenges of online learning, teachers can help students in grades 3 to 8 feel a sense of belonging.

How to Encourage Independent Thinking in Math

Breaking the habit of scaffolding her students’ learning, one teacher stepped back to provide them with space for productive struggle.

How to Engage Students in Any Subject Area

A high school teacher with four decades of experience shares the principles she has used to build student excitement in a wide variety of subjects.

How to Engage Students’ Memory Processes to Improve Learning

Strategies like connecting new information to students’ prior knowledge guide them to store what they’re learning in long-term memory.

How to Forge a Strong Community in an Online Classroom

With teachers and students separated, maintaining a sense of community relies on some of the same practices they used in the classroom.

How to Guide Students to Self-Regulated Learning

Teaching middle and high school students how to study helps them see for themselves why and when to use different strategies for learning.

How to Help Students Develop the Skills They Need to Complete Homework

Middle and high school students can learn to work more efficiently by using strategies that improve their executive function skills.

How to Help Students Focus on What They’re Learning, Not the Grade

Work that emphasizes students’ developing skills instead of a graded product reminds them to see learning as their goal.

How to Increase Participation By Asking Better Questions

Framing questions the right way—and scaffolding the right kinds of responses—can help teachers avoid blank stares and awkward silences.

How to Increase the Cognitive Demand of Lessons

Tips for bringing students to that mental state where they’re so engaged with a task that they use all their mental resources and don’t notice time passing.

How to Lead Students to Engage in Higher Order Thinking

Asking students a series of essential questions at the start of a course signals that deep engagement is a requirement.

How to Make Sure Grades Are Meaningful and Useful to Students

Giving grades that truly reflect student learning is one of the perennial problems in teaching, and these shifts in thinking about how to gather and report grades can help.

How to Provide Less Structure for Independent Reading

Developing independent readers means nurturing the conditions for passion and independent thinking to flourish.

When we limit independent reading to a small range of topics, genres, and reading levels, and routinely assign rote accountability tasks like daily reading logs, we inadvertently send a signal that reading isn't meant to be a joyful, inspiring, self-directed, and even revelatory activity.

How to Spark Engagement in Math With Pictures

A popular strategy, using pictures in math class gives students another way to access math concepts and can spark great conversations.

How to Talk to Children

New teachers may feel prepared for literacy and math lessons, but be uncertain about how to just talk with someone under the age of 10. These tips should help.

How to Teach Your Three Year Old Responsibility

Responsibility means being dependable, making good choices, and taking accountability for your actions. A responsible citizen looks out for the well being of others and understands we all have a part to play in making the world a better place. For a three-year-old, responsibility might look like picking up their toys, clearing their dinner plate, or putting their dirty clothes in the hamper – simple tasks that they can take on to contribute to their family.

How to Use Games to Build Community in Distance Learning

Games not only provide fun distractions from the stressors of the pandemic but also can be useful tools for online learning.