Debates over math standards, whether they are the NCTM Standards or the Common Core Math Standards, often spill into the question, “What do they mean for struggling students?” There are many issues behind this question, not the least of which is the exceedingly heterogeneous group of students frequently called “struggling.” Unpacking that issue alone is an essay in itself. For our purposes, what standards mean for struggling students can be distilled into at least two basic questions:

• Are high standards appropriate for struggling students?
• If they are not appropriate, are they even relevant?

Your new schedule awaits your return, sitting silently in your mailbox at school. With palpating heart and sweaty hands you skim the page to find …

• COLLABORATION, Professional Learning Communities (PLC),
  Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 2:00–2:45

It’s back. Written in the schedule again. The only difference is that this year it looks like you will be collaborating more often, not less. Three days of teaming? You panic. With mind racing you wonder, “How will I survive this year? Summer, oh summer – how I loved you! Wait. Should I have taken that secretarial position at the local bank?”

Increasing Achievement Through Writing, Part 2

Using Writing Strategies Is a Shared Responsibility

As I shared the reading and writing strategies discussed in Part 1 of this blog series, word spread about the success middle school students were having with them. Over time, I met with teachers from various subject areas and grade levels. They then used the strategies to help their students learn, remember, and apply content.

One team of intermediate-level teachers attended my workshops, learned the strategies, and used them with their third, fourth, and fifth grade students. They posted charts in their classrooms that listed the strategies that would be taught and used during the school year. After only a few months, these teachers changed the title of their charts from “Strategies You Will Learn” to “Strategies You Are Expected to Use.”

Increasing Achievement Through Writing, Part 1

A Brave Young Teacher

Several years ago I shared writing strategies with a large group of middle school teachers and administrators – well over a hundred educators from all grades and subject areas. Everyone participated enthusiastically all morning as I demonstrated note taking, summarizing, responding to text, breaking down definitions, and asking or answering questions.

By Louisa Moats, Ed.D.

Motivation, according to a recent textbook on adolescent literacy*, is “a feeling of interest or enthusiasm that makes a student want to complete a task or improve his or her skills.” Teachers of adolescent poor readers, however, often find that their students are willing to do anything BUT read and write. Getting students to believe that they can make meaningful progress—when all prior experience suggests they will not—and to work at something that has never been rewarding is a major challenge.

Hello, EdView360 readers, and welcome back from your summer break! Don’t you just love the sound of it? Summer break. What a wonderful and highly deserved time for education professionals.

You might have spent your days traveling, focusing on professional development, enjoying time with family, or refreshing your look and enhancing your greatest attributes … like we did! We spent the past few months picking the brains of some of the industry’s greatest minds (like YOURS) to ultimately uncover what matters most to our readers, the individuals who serve as the backbone of our education system.

Bruce Sarte

The implications of 3D printing in our society are simply mind-boggling. From NASA sending a 3D model of a wrench into space, to businesses being able to implement JOOM (Just On Order Making) and immediately produce anything your heart desires, to shipping objects via data packets that the recipient can simply print, 3D printing holds an unprecedented level of practical promise. It all sounds really great, but how does this technology impact the classroom? Immensely.

By Alexandria Mooney

Being a teacher in the 21st century means that there is a wealth of resources and educational technology available for you to use in your classroom—much more than even five years ago. Having all of these tools available to you greatly opens up the resources you have to enhance your content and make it readily accessible and engaging for your students.

One of my favorite things to do in my classroom is transform it into a blended learning environment, where students are accessing new content and material on their own through the use of technology. At left is an example of a student's work using Photoshop to redesign a logo to fit with an education conference's theme of being "thrown together with tape and cardboard."

By Kristine Cohn

At the Kids In Need Foundation (KINF), our mission is to help students learn and succeed by providing school supplies to kids who need them most nationwide. We are so thankful to be working with Voyager Sopris Learning for a third year!

As the senior director of Development and Corporate Partnerships, I have the opportunity to work with Voyager Sopris Learning™ and other companies who want to change lives through the gift of school supplies. Many of the boys and girls we help have never received anything new in their lives, so getting a backpack filled with brand-new supplies is that much more exciting. Apart from the backpacks we distribute, KINF maintains 34 resource centers around the country, where teachers can go to get new notebooks, folders, and whatever other supplies their students need.

The month of May has arrived, and whether you’re merry or at the brink of sending out a Mayday, the end of the school year is upon us.

If you are in the midst of state testing or working with students on culminating projects, you may not have had time to notice that today kicks off Teacher Appreciation Week. We hope that you have felt appreciated the entire school year for doing what could be the toughest (and most rewarding) job on the planet.