by Elizabeth Supan, Monthly Columnist The new buzz words around education are “Common Core”. Most states have adopted the new Common Core State Standards, so now what? That has been the focus of many planning sessions with teachers in my building. How do we address Common Core standards while still teaching our current state
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by Steve Reifman, Monthly Columnist One of the most valuable teaching moves we can make to help our students become more thoughtful, more self-directed learners is to build reflection activities into our instructional plans as frequently as possible. As educators, it is easy to focus so much attention on the “front-end” aspects of lesson planning,
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Are you ready for some new spelling and sight word activities for the new school year?  Break free of traditional ideas and try these three teacher-tested and approved activities below.  They are sure to increase students’ spelling and sight word retention, as well as, improve test scores!

Idea by Judy, 4th Grade Teacher, Atlantic Highlands, NJ To help my students grow their language and observation skills, I plan a walking trip around our school. As we walk, I offer students a camera and invite them to take turns snapping photos of interesting people, places, and things they observe. Each time a student
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Idea by Risa, 4th Grade Teacher, Owings Mills, MD I’m a big believer in pairing the performing arts with literature. When given the opportunity to act out the vocabulary and ideas presented in a book, story, passage or poem, my students’ reading comprehension improves greatly. We use both drama and art to act out words,
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Idea by Terri, 6th, 7th & 8th Grade Teacher, Leesburg, OH To help students learn parts of speech, we make “Parts of Speech Foldables.” I have each student fold a piece of paper in half vertically and label the left side of the page with the part of speech, the definition of that part of
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Idea by Michelle, a 6th Grade Teacher, from Bison, SD. All year long, I work to prepare my students to make the move from my 6th grade class to Jr. High. For example, we have lockers in our classroom and instead of letting them sit empty I have students use these to store their belongings.
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Idea by Cara Grebner, a 6th Grade Teacher, in Lincoln University, PA. To encourage students to read over the summer, I help them begin to plan a summer book club. Whether students choose a title from a required book list, or they agree on a title of their own choosing, I recommend helping students set
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Idea by Linda, a 5th/6th Grade Teacher, from Fort Morgan, CO. Our school loops our 5th and 6th graders, so these students spend a full two years bonding with one another. To commemorate our time together, we have each of our 6th graders make a nine-square quilt from construction paper. We have the kids decorate each
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Idea by Marcella, a 2nd Grade Teacher, from Richmond, CA. Each spring, I choose a popular book series to introduce to my children. In the past, I have chosen books from The Spiderwick Chronicles, The Children of the Red King series and The Sisters Grimm: The Fairy Tale Detectives series. I read aloud two or
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