Have you gone to see Disney’s Frozen at the movie theater? I went last night with a friend of mine. We managed to get to the 5:05 pm showing, and we were the only ones there. So yes, we talked too loudly, laughed in an unladylike manner, and attempted to sing along with the characters….
Ideas
A Few of My Favorite Things
Over the last several years, I’ve enjoyed working closely with the other editors here at The Mailbox to create, edit, and share a slew of great ideas for upper grades teachers. Just for fun, I’d like to share a few of my favorite ideas for your consideration. “My Page” – Sure, kids these days are…
Common Core Outcomes Giveaway
Your time at the end of the school year is valuable. So this will be a short and, hopefully, sweet blog post. Roughly 97 ideas crossed paths in my brain at one point this morning (not unusual, really), and I was left with the following questions that I want to ask you: Did you incorporate…
Making the Most of These Days
It is my belief that every day you have students in your classroom is a day to educate. That includes the very last days of school. As much as I yearned for the opportunity to slack off a little, maybe show a film adaptation of a novel we had read, I rarely gave my students…
A Turkey-Themed Twofer
Over at our Be The Difference blog, my colleague Diane is running her Gobble, Gobble Giveaway—contribute an idea that saves time during the school day and be entered for a chance to win a book of your choice from The Mailbox. Before you go rushing over to Diane’s blog (and I encourage you to do…
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…
We Vote for Teachers
Ah, election time. You can hear the happy citizenry delightfully and kindly debating the merits of each other’s preferred candidate, both of whom present a truthful and glorious roadmap into a prosperous future guaranteed to last. Most wonderful of all, of course, is their always-unbroken promise to help make our students their number-one priority. You…
Plot Points
Before the end of the school year sneaks up on you and wallops you upside the back of the head, stop right now and think about some of the lessons you’ve learned this year. If you haven’t noted the people you want to thank, the compliments you’ve wanted to give, or the ideas you’ve had…
Ten Ideas for a Classroom That Fosters Thinking
I like to read people’s ideas. Sometimes, it doesn’t even matter what the topic is, except perhaps for such things as Internet marketing analytics and reality shows about people who don’t seem to ever actually work. Ever. Here are ten ideas about teaching from Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), the late British philosopher, mathematician, historian, and social…
More Math Excitement, Please
Something I noticed while looking at my calendar: There’s always a day or a week or a month devoted to books or literacy or something language-artsy. Sure, on March 14 (3.14) we had Pi Day. That was a tough one to explain to a lot of people, but it was mathematics-related nonetheless. It may be…