When we think of spring, we imagine birds chirping, leaves turning green, flowers blooming, and the sun shining its warmth over everything. If you are an educator, spring has a second meaning: it represents another testing season full of student worries about standardized assessments as well as teacher stress as you look for ways to Read More »
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FEB
19
2020
Student Sharing: A Strategy for Culturally Responsive Teaching
Responsive Classroom strategies, structures, and techniques offer a wide array of practices we can use for culturally responsive teaching. One of these strategies is student sharing. Providing opportunities for students to share…
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FEB
17
2020
Using the Responsive Classroom Approach to Support ALL Students
Ensuring that all our students are academically engaged is our highest priority as educators. We want to teach our students the skills needed to creatively engage with content while becoming critical thinkers—…
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FEB
11
2020
Strategies for Cultivating a Classroom That Represents Students
Imagine walking into a family member’s home and seeing your photograph on the mantel, or being in class and hearing your professor use a cultural reference you connect with. These experiences make…
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FEB
06
2020
Strengthening Your Community: Continuing to Connect with Students and Families
Recently, as I was returning a rental car, the associate behind the desk asked me an all-too-familiar question: “How was everything?” Without very much thought, I smiled and provided my routine answer:…
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FEB
03
2020
Valuing Cultural Norms That Differ From Your Own
Black History Month is an opportunity for us as educators not only to teach students about historic contributors to our American history, but also to help students experience and find value in…
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JAN
15
2020
Strategies for Getting Students Back on Track
Helping students get back on track when they are engaged in off-task or rule-breaking behavior is an important goal when responding to misbehavior. We want students to quickly get back to positively…
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JAN
13
2020
Revisiting Routines with Students
Does this sound familiar? You teach your students classroom routines at the beginning of the year and watch as they integrate these new routines into their learning, but for some reason –…
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JAN
10
2020
Breathing New Life into the Rules
Teachers and students alike return from a well-deserved winter break refreshed, looking toward new possibilities. The new year welcomes endless opportunities to reestablish goals, renew and revisit routines, and refresh well-known class…
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JAN
06
2020
It’s a New Year – Time to Look at Students Through a New Lens
A new calendar year provides the ideal occasion to reflect on who our students are now compared to who they were at the beginning of the year. Depending on how early the…
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JAN
01
2020
Goal Setting: An Ongoing Method for Channeling New Energy
Every January 1st, we all receive a chance to start fresh. While many of us set a New Year’s resolution, often we only manage to stick with it for a week or two! What…
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DEC
19
2019
Building a Positive Community Through Reflection
As the year draws to an end, we find ourselves reflecting on the past 12 months. New Year’s Eve in 2019 also marks the end of the decade! Reflection can be a…
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DEC
16
2019
Use Envisioning Language and Goal Setting to Promote Student Reflection
Showing Students What Is Possible The language we use with students every day influences how they see themselves. Our words can shape students’ views of themselves years after our direct influence. Envisioning…
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DEC
13
2019
Stop and Think: Teaching Students to Reflect
As educators, we all want to help our students develop valuable life-long skills, including the ability to think critically about their own work, truly know themselves and their learning styles, reflect on…
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DEC
10
2019
Rediscovering the Power of Reflection
There are days when, as educators, so many tasks are vying for our attention that our to-do lists feel endless. During these hectic days, reflection — a key piece of teaching and…
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DEC
04
2019
Check the Boxes of Self-Reflection
Our beliefs drive our actions and the results of our actions reinforce our beliefs. When we endeavor to change our actions, often we focus on the relationship between our actions and their…
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NOV
20
2019
Developing Intrinsic Motivation with Choice
According to Vocabulary.com, the word “intrinsic” is an adjective that means “belonging to a thing by its very nature.” Some synonyms for intrinsic are: essential, built-in, constitutional, inherent, integral, inner, internal. This…
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NOV
18
2019
Using Observation to Enhance Learning
This time of year, it can be easy to begin thinking that we’ve got students all figured out. We’ve had them in our classrooms for a couple of months, refreshed our knowledge…
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NOV
14
2019
Igniting the Fires of Learning
By the time the school year reaches November, students feel a familiarity with the rhythm of the school day that leads to more intensified learning. This increase in academic challenges can be…
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NOV
12
2019
Strengthening Students’ Speaking and Listening Skills
Having productive conversations requires students to listen deeply, reflect on what is said, express ideas clearly, sustain attention, ask insightful questions, debate respectfully, and develop comprehension of information taken in. These essential…
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NOV
05
2019
Find Time for Social-Emotional Learning
One of the best parts of being a teacher is having the opportunity to provide students with social and emotional skills (in addition to academic skills) that help them build and maintain…
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OCT
25
2019
Randolph Middle School is School to Watch New Jersey 2019
In March 2019, Randolph Middle School was recognized as a School to Watch by New Jersey Schools to Watch. Randolph Middle School is the tenth school in the state to receive…
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OCT
23
2019
Bullying Prevention: How Aware Are You? 5 Steps You Can Take
According to stopbullying.gov, between one in four and one in three U.S. students say they have been bullied at school. October is National Bullying Prevention Month, and this provides an opportunity for…
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OCT
21
2019
What to Do When Students Start Testing Limits
The school year is in full swing: hopes and goals have been established, classroom and school expectations are in place, and learning is in high gear. Everything is off to a great…
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OCT
20
2019
Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes: Re-establishing Balance in Your Classroom
With the changes in fall weather outside, the weather inside the classroom is likely changing too. As a result, teachers often find themselves responding to misbehavior more than they did earlier in…
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OCT
19
2019
Communicating with Families: Operating from a Place of Empathy
It was the morning of the first day of school and for the first time in four years, I was preparing my daughter to attend a school where I was not one…
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OCT
18
2019
Having Effective, Affirming, and Energizing Conversations with Families
Every interaction we have (or don’t have) with parents does, to some degree, reflect how much we value families’ input and the extent to which we see caregivers as our partners in…
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