“To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail.” ― Abraham Harold Maslow You may be familiar with Mr. Maslow. He has a Hierarchy of Needs named for him. However, this is not what I’m concerned with today. You have tests to administer and a curriculum to…
CCSS
A Frosty “Mathcraft”
No time for arts and crafts? Then plan a “mathcraft”! For each student, cut a circle and a hexagon from white paper; then cut each circle in half and each hexagon into a rectangle and two triangles. Choose a Common Core skill from below to incorporate during the formation of Frosty. Look at Frosty now!…
History Without Standards
I went looking for a different kind of standard. We have the Common Core State Standards, which cover mathematics and language arts. We also have the Next Generation Science Standards, already adopted by six states. But what about history standards? (And the arts? And civics? And common sense?) What I found was the National Center…
The Rigors of Math According to CCSS
Regular readers know that math and I get along about as well as oil and water, or perhaps open flames and gasoline. However, I do find it fascinating that the Common Core State Standards have what is called the “Standards for Mathematical Practice.” These are eight types of math expertise teachers should look for in…
Happy Birthday to NCLB
Today is No Child Left Behind’s 11th birthday. And while that does not mean that we should also be singing happy birthday to the standardized test, it does mean that we’ve seen a lot more of the standardized test’s face around the classroom in the last 11 years. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) marked the…
Sign Up. You Could Win!
There are a lot of things you can do to feel good about yourself. One of them is winning the lottery. On a more practical note, you’ll feel good when you have the tools you need to do your best in your classroom. To help you, The Mailbox has created two new weekly e-newsletters, Literature…
What Would a Teacher Do?
Sometimes I can go on a tear and have something that I want to write about here at the Exchange just about every single day. Then we have a stretch like this recent one, where I go missing for a week and a half. What’s brought me back is another number. The number is 15,800,000,000….