Blogs on Middle (6-8)

More Blogs on Middle (6-8)RSS
Betty RayJune 24, 2012

Greetings from sunny San Diego. I'm here for the annual ISTE conference and its innovative kick-off gathering, SocialEdCon -- the one-day unconference formerly known as EduBloggerCon. (Organizer Steve Hargadon changed the name to reflect the change in emphasis from blogging to the larger social media universe that brings educators together.)

Topics this year ranged from how to expedite technology adoption to the impact of technology on social and emotional learning; blended learning; and tools and ideas for making media in the classroom. (See the entire SocialEdCon schedule) Over the next week or so, we'll hear from some of these participants as guest bloggers here on Edutopia.

Read More
Dominick RecckioJune 22, 2012

One thing that teaches the lessons of accountability, responsibility, diligence and an appreciation for knowledge is homework. Every student has to do it, and for most kids, it is a necessity in order to do well in school. But its usefulness and whether it's taken seriously are always topics of conversation among students.

Read More
Danielle Moss LeeJune 19, 2012

I was a college student the first time I remember hearing about Juneteenth, the annual holiday established to commemorate and celebrate the emancipation of the last African chattel slaves in the United States in the state of Texas.

Read More
Rebecca AlberJune 18, 2012

If a student dropped to the linoleum floor hungry and ill, as a classroom community, we would come to her aid immediately. We would offer food and comforting words and search out medical support from the school nurse and possibly even dial 9-1-1.

Read More
Maurice EliasJune 15, 2012

This Sunday, Father's Day, would have been my father's 92nd birthday. It's a day that reminds me how important it is to show our fathers how much we appreciate them while we have them with us.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to see how well you are doing. You can also draw from some of these as an emotional intelligence-building activity with your students. It might help to refocus their future Father's Days (and yours) toward giving more enduring gifts than typical purchases.

Read More
Mary Beth HertzJune 14, 2012

As we approach the summer months, many educators lament the "summer slide." The months between June and September can vary between enriching camp or other learning experiences to days upon days spent playing video games or watching TV on the couch. Students often return to school having lost a reading level or a variety of math concepts.

Read More
Heather Wolpert-GawronJune 13, 2012

Earlier in the year, I had our middle school Parent/Teacher conferences, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that 99 percent of my students (most of whom are Title I) have a computer in the home. However, there was absolutely no oversight of what was going on with the computer, because the only person who even knew how to turn the computer on, many parents claimed through their translators, was their student. The parents knew nothing of the box in the kid's bedroom.

An online colleague of mine, Patrick Ledesma, recently reminded me of the "door to door" law that states it is the school's responsibility to keep students safe the minute they leave their front door until they return home at the end of the day. However, this law now seems to extend to cyber safety and netiquette, making our responsibility to monitor children greater than ever because their world is now ever wider.

Read More
Autumn CrispJune 12, 2012

Even those of us who teach Shakespeare may never take the time to appreciate the dedication that he had to craft. He's such a fixture of Western sensibility that he's easy to take for granted; we might begin to assume that writing came easily to him, but wouldn't that diminish his hard work? According to the Folger Shakespeare Library, his complete works consist of 118,406 lines of verse. A solid majority of those verses are in rigid iambic pentameter or trochaic tetrameter or some other icky meter that most of us modern poets don't touch with a ten-foot quill. I personally lean towards haiku, as do most of my students.

Read More
Ben JohnsonJune 12, 2012

His name was Kevin (a pseudonym). He had red hair and freckles with a slight build. He was confident and well spoken (perhaps outspoken). He was probably the smartest student I had ever seen. His mother was divorced and worked a horse training operation by herself. Kevin had to take care of his two younger siblings. Every one of his middle school teachers complained about him. His attendance was horrible, but that is not why teachers disliked him.

Read More
Jeff GrabillJune 11, 2012

Writing teachers like me (and perhaps like you) have been caught in a tight spot for some time now. On the one hand, computing technologies have radically transformed the meaning of "writing." On the other hand, high stakes assessments and their impact on teaching have limited what counts as writing in school.

Read More
see more see less