One of my top favorite ways to encourage deep thinking among my students has been to use Hexagonal Thinking. I have written about it several times on this blog because I always so impressed with the discussions I hear in small groups when we use this strategy. Here are some of the previous posts I’ve … Read more
It happened when I was still a relatively new teacher. With a few years under my belt, I was beginning to feel like I knew what I was doing, and I was excited for the promise of the new school year. I was beginning to feel confident in my career, and it was not uncommon … Read more
Yesterday’s post, which was about finding creative ways to make Zoom (or any online conference) calls fun, was a nice lead-in today’s shared activity. Eric Berlin, puzzlemaker extraordinaire, (see my Puzzlesnacks post for more info) came up with an ingenious idea that adds a twist to social distancing while earning money for charity. When you … Read more
Alexis Lewis is a teenage inventor who is on a mission to inspire other teens to innovate. You can read her story, and about the products she has invented so far in her young life, here. Alexis specifically wants middle schools to guide students with inventing curriculum, and has launched a website to help in … Read more
UPDATE 1/26/2021: I have created a Wakelet collection of Valentine’s Day lesson that you can visit here. Operation Valentine is an adorable project on Instructables that can be used for grades 3 and up to teach the basics of electrical circuits just in time for Valentine’s Day. You may recall the post that I did … Read more
I came across this cup-stacking activity from Jaclyn Sepp when I was looking for some ways to help the students work on teamwork. I did it with 5 different classes of 8th grade students with various levels of success. (Note to self – don’t have the cups on the table while you are trying to … Read more