Watch and learn. Our earliest learning experiences are rooted in these words. Parents tell their children “Watch that bird searching for food on the ground” and “Watch me tie my shoes”. We learn by watching. This doesn’t change as we grow older. Most of us, when entering new…
Warming up before you exercise is considered a really good idea. It allows your body to prepare for the workout ahead – you stretch your muscles, you increase your heart rate and you are able to “get in the mindset” and prepare for your workout. Warming up is…
Winter break can be a great time to spend some extra time reading with the children in your life. Cozy up together with one of these seasonal picture books and you’re sure to feel warm. First Snow by Peter McCarthy Pedro travels a long way to visit his…
“From the Field” is a collection of short, inspiring and heart-warming classroom anecdotes contributed by our professional developers as they work in classrooms across the country. Names of teachers and students have been changed. Even though the Thanksgiving holiday has passed, it’s still a great time for reflection. While many…
What do the following people have in common: a runner completing a marathon, a long-distance swimmer crossing the English Channel and a second grader reading for 20 minutes? Stamina, that’s what! Just as athletes train each and every day to go farther, to be stronger, and to reach…
Data can be scary but it doesn’t have to be. As a researcher, we are concerned with things like validity, reliability, sample size, and statistical significance among other things, but data needs to be valuable to those who are using it in practice. Data may present frightening findings, but…
Here are the facts: people of color make up 37% of the U.S. population, but only 10% of children’s books published in the past 21 years include multicultural content. That is a disconcerting gap. We know that children benefit from seeing people like themselves in the books they…
This article is the first of an ongoing series entitled From the Field. Short, inspiring and heart-warming classroom anecdotes contributed by our professional developers as they work in classrooms across the country. Names of teachers and students have been changed. In the beginning of the school year, little…
It’s a beautiful late August day, and my family is heading down the shore for what is likely to be our last day trip of summer. As we drive the familiar roads, we approach the small roadside fruit stand that today displays a standing sign boasting Homemade PIES….
For every teacher, a new school year is often accompanied by new goals: to build a positive classroom culture, to introduce new skills and concepts to your class, and to increase student achievement or test scores, to just name a few. With so many pressing goals to juggle,…