Jump into fall with fun art lesson plans and activities for the classroom! This is a great time to design colorful and creative activities around the changing of leaves and Halloween themes. Throw in some pumpkins and turkeys and craft your way to Christmas! Halloween Characters Activity Between all the sweets and treats, add […]
Search Results for: summer
Art Lesson Plan: Watercolor Landscapes
Watercolor is a wonderful medium for capturing and depicting the nuances of each season. From dusky winter darkness to summertime sunshine and everything in between. Masters like John Singer Sargent, Auguste Rodin, and Camille Pissarro were geniuses of the seasonal watercolor landscape. Art lovers everywhere still marvel at their techniques. Your students can explore […]
Five Days Out: What You Need and What You Need to Get Done
There’s only a week left until school starts and it seems as if you’ll never get everything done. Here’s a helpful list to make sure you’ve crossed everything off your list, as well as some suggestions of tools or materials you can use to get them done. Five days out: Get your tech in […]
The Back-to-School Bucket List
Teachers across the country are looking at their calendars and wondering where the summer went. The knee-jerk response for many is to bury their heads under the covers and sleep until the end of August, but then you are missing out on what summer is all about—doing things you aren’t able to do during the […]
Now What? The First Things You Do When You Get to Your Classroom
When you arrive on the first day of school for teachers, you will be pulled in a lot of different directions. There will be faculty meetings, lunches, and catch-up sessions. To make the most effective use of your time, it helps to have a plan. Here is what you should focus on when you […]
Early Childhood Classroom Prep: 10 Must-Have Supplies
Walk into your classroom on the first day of preschool week prepared for anything! These common sense items for your early childhood classroom will help you prep to avoid distractions and keep your focus on the teaching task at hand. 1. Measuring Tape When setting up your room or putting up decorations, it’s difficult to […]
30 Days and Counting: Getting Yourself (and Your Classroom) Ready
Do you hear that? It’s the first day of school. It can sneak up on you if you aren’t careful. Here’s what you should be getting done now so you’re not rushed during pre-school week. 1. Organize your summer learning Did you go to a conference this summer? Read a lot of education books? […]
Regroup, Reorganize, Recharge
Educators have less summer than everyone else in education- if they get a summer at all. That makes time management and prioritization imperative. You won’t be able to do everything you want, so what takes precedence? To paraphrase the old saying, there are three R’s to the educator’s summer: regroup, reorganize, and recharge. Here […]
How to Implement a School Reform Plan
We all know colleagues who tend to overreact. Their achievement scores were mediocre or worse, they go to a few conferences or professional development classes over the summer, and drop a reform plan on their teachers with little to no warning. You can imagine what kind of buy-in that approach generates. Every school reaches […]
Scheduling Teachers and Classes – Against the Status Quo
For a profession in which every day is different, teachers can be creatures of habit. Some veterans have been teaching the same preps for a decade or more. And for people who like their schools running like a machine, many administrators don’t see a need to upset the apple cart. Shaking things up is […]
Free Teacher Resources from the Federal Government
Some of the best resources for information and inspiration come from US government agencies. Many of these agencies make that information available to teachers through artifacts, background documents, and lesson plans to better inform the instruction going on across the country. You’ve already paid for it through your taxes, so take full advantage of […]
Relaxing Educationally
Summer break is made for relaxing, but many teachers feel guilty that they aren’t spending the time better preparing for the coming school year. Have no fear! Here are the best ways to relax while keeping your activities educational. Traveling – Every destination can broaden the mind if you know how to approach it. […]