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The Teacher Studio

Learning, thinking, creating

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Back to School Student Surveys

Getting to know our students is such a huge part of those first weeks of  "back to school"...and the thought of doing it virtually only adds to the anxiety of a new year.  Whether you are returning to in-person instruction, virtual, or blended, it's essential to find ways to get to know about your students and to connect with them, and student surveys are one way to do just that.  Social-Emotional ... Read the Post

Place Value: Everything You Need to Know!

It's a round-up of place value blog posts to get you excited about teaching this essential concept! Many teachers start the year working on place value concepts, but it's truly a topic that we cycle through all year long in increasing sophistication!  Remember, place value is a complex topic that develops as a progression from the very first days in school (or earlier!) to much more advanced ... Read the Post

Teaching Geometry Lessons and Concepts

Teaching Geometry Geometry is often one of the trickiest concepts for teachers to teach—and so often our textbooks and other resources either present things too quickly or in a way that simply isn’t engaging enough or with enough practice opportunities. Geometry actually crosses content areas—both measurement and geometry!  I have had SO many teachers ask me for support in teaching geometry, ... Read the Post

Responding to Literature: Thinking Deeply

One thing I have noticed about my students is that they LOVE to listen to me read aloud and are getting better and better about picking just right books and reading with amazing stamina.  What we really need work on (and I bet I am not alone in this!) is thinking deeply and writing about our reading. How did we start thinking deeply about texts? We've worked on a number of things like ... Read the Post

End of Year Word Problems and Problem Solving Tips

We all know that students are hard to "engage" at this time of year--so asking them to solve end of year word problems seems unrealistic, right? WRONG! When we create math problems related to topics students care about--they are FAR more likely to engage.  I love doing problem solving at the end of the year because it's the perfect time to apply all those Standards for Mathematical Practice.  ... Read the Post

Teaching Students About Planning Narrative Writing

During our historical fiction unit, our curriculum gives students the opportunity to do a unique type of narrative writing.  They take a key "scene" from one of the books we have read (either as a read aloud or their book club novel) and rewrite one scene from a different character's point of view.  To really guide and scaffold their work, I wrote my own narrative from our read aloud as they wrote ... Read the Post

Focused Instruction: Teaching Effective Writing Minilessons

Our world of teaching has changed over the last few years--from virtually teaching to the gap in instruction to seeing more and more issues with focus and behavior. It's time to look at the remaining curriculum, streamline it, and figure out how to get the most "bang" for the delivery method with truly focused instruction. One thing that is becoming clear to me is that short and sweet ... Read the Post