I love visiting bookstores, especially children’s bookstores, when I’m traveling. This summer, while I was on the road for work, I discovered lots of new books. (Truth be told, I also spent a little more than I should have on books for my toddler at home!) Over the coming weeks, I wanted to share a few I found that you might want to use during the first weeks of school.
In my first couple of years teaching fourth grade, I was surprised by how much my students argued about who owned which supplies. "Nicole, can I borrow your black marker?" Carradine would ask. "No. My mom bought these for me." Carradine would push, "But you’re letting Rachel use your markers." Nicole would shrug, and Rachel would reach over and take the black marker.
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Classroom Management & Discipline Classroom Organization
Furniture takes up lots of room, so if you’re lucky enough to have some choice about how you furnish your classroom, you’ll want to choose carefully. Look for pieces that ...
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Engaging Academics
What do you read to your class on the last day of school? I always put so much energy into that last choice. I wanted a book that would celebrate the community we had built, the friendships we had made, the values we had discussed . . . and at the same time, I wanted a book with a rich story or intriguing characters or beautiful illustrations—one the children would really enjoy.
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Classroom Management & Discipline Special Times in the Year
I recently had the pleasure of watching a talented museum guide lead an excited group of fourth graders through a well-designed interactive exhibit about Lewis and Clark’s trip west at St. Louis’ Museum of Westward Expansion. It seemed to be just the sort of experience we want field trips to be—fun, safe, engaging, and productive.
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Classroom Management & Discipline Joyful Classrooms
I was so moved by your responses to my last post about the importance of bringing joy to classrooms! The images of college students being read to, classes dancing at ...
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Classroom Management & Discipline Joyful Classrooms
I’ve been thinking recently yet again about how important joy is to classroom life and learning. My ten-year-old niece got me started down this path when she returned from visiting a school her parents were considering for her next year. When my sister picked her up, my niece breathlessly told her, “Mom, they don’t do any work at that school, except for a little math.”
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Activity Ideas Message Ideas Morning Meeting
Recently, I was standing at an airport baggage claim area when a large ceiling tile fell and grazed my left shoulder. At about the same time as I felt the tile, I realized that a very large brownish-black rat had also been on top of it. The rat seemed as surprised to have landed there as I was to see him. It began scampering among my startled, screaming fellow passengers.
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Families Positive Community
A couple weeks ago, I wrote about a thought-provoking series on the home-school connection that was recently published in the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel. In the second article in the series, ...
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Families Positive Community
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Energizers Energizers & Activities
Singing a familiar tune or chant in another language can enliven a Morning Meeting, be a fun energizer, and help meet the needs of the growing number of second language learners in our classrooms.
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Families Positive Community
Making a class version of a book is a community building activity used by lots of teachers at the beginning of the year. I used it with second graders, but it could definitely be adapted for younger or older students. Here’s how it works:
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Classroom Management & Discipline Families Positive Community Special Times in the Year
As a new teacher years ago, I knew by instinct and training that students would learn more, and with more joy, if adults from their home lives shared in their school lives. I wanted to welcome families into our first grade classroom in ways that would engage them and allow them to appreciate the children's accomplishments. Figuring out how to do so, though, took years of not-quite-right experiments.
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Adolescent Development High School
The high school years are a time of rapid change. Teenagers are developing new interests, forming strong opinions, seeking independence, and navigating a wide range of academic and social challenges. ...
Case Study
Elementary K-5 School Leaders and Administration
In the 2024–2025 school year, Schwenksville Elementary had two ambitious goals: Rather than viewing these as two separate challenges, Schwenksville principal Krista Venza saw them as an opportunity to create ...
2025-08-11 Collegeville, PA |
A recent series of articles published in the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel have me thinking about one of my favorite topics—the importance of forging connections between schools and parents.