Celebrate Pi Day

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Teachers around the world celebrate Pi Day each March 14.  Although the concept of Pi is typically taught beginning late elementary school, this doesn’t prevent students of any age from participating in and enjoying Pi Day events Although younger students don’t understand the concept of Pi, they do know some information about circles. Using circles … read more »


Have Fun While Preparing for Standardized Testing!

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People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing. Dale Carnegie   Many years ago, Volkswagen presented an initiative called The Fun Theory Award. The premise behind the award is that fun is the easiest way to change people’s behavior for the better. The competition encouraged participants to submit entries demonstrating how … read more »


10 Edge Resources for Digital Learning Day

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Mark your calendar to celebrate Digital Learning Day this February 23 with educators from around the globe. This day highlights excellent teaching with technology and promotes the use of digital learning tools to improve the learning experience of our students. Digital Learning Day 2017 (#DLDay) provides an excellent opportunity to try a new digital tool … read more »


5 Tools for Providing Authentic (and Effective) Feedback

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Research has long proven that providing students with authentic and timely feedback improves student performance and learning. In fact, the authors of this study concluded that “Feedback is among the most critical influences on student learning.” Many sites and online tools offer help with providing feedback to learners; in fact, the number of choices may … read more »


Honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. Through Service for Others

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Every year, on the third Monday of January, our nation stops to honor and recognize the contributions of Martin Luther King Jr.  His “I Have a Dream” speech urging all people to fight peacefully for democracy and brotherhood is known by all, and is the basis for many classroom lessons on MLK and Civil Rights. … read more »


What About the Women?

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I recently read an article with this question as it pertains to women’s roles in our National Park Service, and I began thinking about how this issue would be an excellent theme for many classrooms. Instead of just focusing on women’s history in March, what would happen if we raised this question throughout the year … read more »


Teach Bullying Prevention All Year Long

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Last month was National Bullying Prevention Month, but educators know that bullying is an everyday issue. According to the NEA, it is the number one discipline problem in middle schools and a significant problem at all grade levels. So, how do we provide students with the safe and supportive climate for learning they deserve? Here … read more »


Using Primary Sources to Teach Thanksgiving

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There is one day that is ours. Thanksgiving Day is the one day that is purely American. O. Henry A recent TeachersFirst blog post by Paula Deal discussed the use of primary sources and suggested several resources for finding primary sources for all grade levels. What better time of year to include primary sources than … read more »


How a Transparent Classroom Leads to More Effective Parent/Teacher Conferences

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One of the big buzzwords from the 2016 elections is transparency. Wikipedia’s definition of transparency is “operating in such a way that it is easy for others to see what actions are performed.” We want our candidates to provide any and all information necessary to keep us up to date so that the public has … read more »