I was fortunate to attend the National Council for Social Studies convention when it was held in St. Louis with my colleague and fellow #worldgeochat moderator Chris Heffernan (@cheffernan75) . We had decided to divide and conquer by attending different sessions. When we met up at the end of the day, he told me he had attended a great session by Craig Divis called “Mandela’s … Continue reading Music Lyrics: Engaging Primary Sources
Confession: I was a late tech adopter. I didn’t own a computer until I was in college. I couldn’t record on the VCR, and I didn’t have a smartphone until about 2009. As a new teacher, I felt comfortable with PowerPoint and Word, yet I rarely explored any other tech tools. I felt out of my league when it came to tech, and chalked it … Continue reading 10 Free Tech Tools & Websites Every Teacher Should Know About
Every teacher knows that feeling of pure bliss after a lesson was a complete success. Those are the times you are just smiling ear-to-ear as you walk to the parking lot at the end of the day. It is a feeling like no other, and once you feel it, you are on a quest to create as many of those types of lessons as possible. … Continue reading 10 Free Ways To Grow As An Educator
When someone asks me about my junior high social studies classes, I can tell them very little. I just turned 40 this year, so junior high was quite some time ago. Also, most of my social studies classes consisted of lecture, reading the textbook, and answering the questions at the end of the section. Or worksheets.There was one lesson though that I can recall … Continue reading The One Lesson I Remember From Jr. High
When I was a new teacher, I often overlooked the power of picture books and graphic novels in my junior high classroom. I was afraid that if an administrator walked in and they saw me using a picture book or a graphic novel, they would think I was crazy and that I was babying my students. I fear that many new teachers miss out … Continue reading Powerful Picture Books & Graphic Novels (Possibly overlooked in the classroom but not by censors)
