By this point in the school year, you’re probably having some moments when you feel like you’ll lose your mind if you have to repeat yourself one. more. time. Some of you have probably felt like that since September! And that’s perfectly normal. A big part of a teacher’s job is teaching students to listen, follow [...] The post How to get ...

I love a colorful, well-decorated classroom! But students with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) don’t always share that enthusiasm. Some kids with attention challenges are easily distracted by a cluttered, crowded learning environment, so it’s necessary to organize your classroom carefully. These ...

A 40 hour week for a teacher is almost unheard of. The growing number of teacher-bashers out there have somehow gotten the idea that we work far fewer hours that. And of course, anyone who’s ever worked in the field knows that the time spent at school combined with the time spent on paperwork at [...]

When I taught third grade, I found I’d often ask the kids to clean up their desks only to have them look at me quizzically and reply, “I did!” I would peer into their desks and see bits of crayon wrapper, balled up pieces of paper, and mountains of broken pencils piled on top of [...]

I can’t begin to tell you how many emails I’ve received from teachers at their wits end about this dilemma. You know the one: the whole class is completing the same simple math test, but one kid is done in less than three minutes while another child is still picking at his pencil eraser twenty [...]

The edublogosphere has spent the last two years weighing the pros and cons of the flipped classroom model, and the number of conversations is only growing. The initial buzz centered mostly around Khan Academy and was overwhelmingly positive; the idea of having kids view the teacher’s instruction at home and use class time for practice [...]

Today I’m introducing a new feature on The Cornerstone. Each month, I’ll be inviting one educator to share a few classroom management tips that have worked in his or her classroom. I’m hoping to feature a wide cross-section of teachers from all different parts of the world, at all different grade levels, in all different [...] Possibly related ...

I have so many problems with to-do lists. If I don’t write down all my miscellaneous tasks, I’ll forget to do them, but if I DO write them down, the list becomes a mile-long and things just keep getting pushed to the bottom. I feel like I don’t make any progress as I work through my lists [...] Possibly related posts: The best education apps, ...

I don’t like having to do anything myself if it can be automated. Paying bills with checks? No way–online bill pay, direct debited out of my account. To-do lists and calendar dates are composed on my iPhone and auto-synced to my computer. Even my cat’s life is automated: she has a self-cleaning litter box and [...] Possibly related posts: Who’s ...

If you’re exhausted from students constantly tattling on each other (and what elementary school teacher ISN’T?), check out the tips I shared in this radio interview hosted by Charity Preston of TBA Today Blog Talk Radio.  Here are the questions I addressed in this 15 minute broadcast: 1) What causes children to feel the need to [...] Possibly ...