You may have heard of the Frayer Model before. It is a graphic organizer used to help students work with vocabulary in four different ways – providing the definition, characteristics, examples, and non-examples of the vocabulary word. This instructional strategy is used to help students process and understand vocabulary words deeply. Continue reading
Every minute we have with our students has value. I am always looking for ways to get the most out of every moment. As an elementary school administrator, I walk through numerous classrooms each and every day. Something that inevitably occurs in every class, even with the best planning and execution, is the teacher’s desktop from his or her computer is occasionally projected big and upfront for all to see. Even if it is only seen for a couple seconds while switching between programs, often all students see this image (or something similar) multiple times per day: Continue reading
I think we can all agree that it is so important to explicitly think through and teach expectations and procedures in our schools and classrooms in order to set ourselves up for a successful school year, yet we often don’t take the time to do so (or take the time to do so well – by reteaching and practicing with students) for fear of falling behind on the ever-increasing curriculum requirements.
I love creating and sending quick notes of encouragement to teachers and friends. My favorite go-to for creating these was an eCard type app (it was called Red Stamp), but it is no longer available in the app store, and it stopped working (boo). I haven’t found any other ecard app that compares and have been looking for creative ways to pass on positivity and praise. Whether you are experiencing the same sadness over this particular app, or you just want some fresh ideas for sharing feedback, read on for 5 ways to quickly and easily provide positive feedback. Continue reading
When I was in high school, I recall frequently being divided into groups of four students, each of the four members being given a different section of the textbook to read, and then we would come back together and teach each other the part that we were responsible for. You may know this as the Jigsaw Method.
In this digital age, why not allow students to be more creative than this, use the digital resources freely available online, and create something that they are proud to share with their classmates – or even a larger, global audience? Continue reading
I found a super awesome Add-on for Google Docs this week! It’s called Story Speaker. The creators of this add-on wanted to utilize google’s voice recognition capabilities to create interactive stories within Google Docs that can then be played on your Google Home with no coding necessary!
I was blessed to be on the leadership team for the first ever edcamp Cy-Fair which was held this past Saturday, January 20th in Cypress, Texas. I am a huge proponent of edcamps and am so thrilled to bring this professional development model to educators in our area.
The research shows, and we can all agree, that incorporating student collaboration into our lessons has numerous benefits including:
Why, then, do we not incorporate student collaboration strategies more often? Continue reading
Last week, I was preparing an introductory presentation for my school staff on Google Drawings. To give them choice in their learning and allow them to learn and find resources that appealed to their needs, I wanted to provide them with time during the class for some guided independent learning, but I wanted to use Google Drawings to teach them about Drawings in such a way that they could then turn around use the same template for a different lesson in their own classes. Here’s what I came up with (click to explore): Continue reading
Meredith Akers 