Teaching Tip Tuesdays

“If you are a young person, open your eyes wide and let the world educate you to the fullest extent. (‘Ascend no longer from the textbook! warned Walt Whitman, and I warn it, too; there are many ways to learn that do no necessarily [Keep Reading]

“Do you want to study under the great teachers? . . . Well, you can find them anywhere. They live on the shelves of your library; they live on the walls of museums; they live in recordings made decades ago. Your teachers don’t even need [Keep Reading]

I am so excited that Blue’s Clues is back on television. It has a new host and a new title, Blue’s Clues and You, but it is just as great as it has always been. I wrote this lesson plan for a program I plan to deliver at the public [Keep Reading]

“There are unspoken maxims we embrace as children that even the most educated, experienced, advanced adults should never abandon if we want our days to still fascinate and fulfill us.” So writes erik wahl in his book Unthink: rediscover [Keep Reading]

Giving students jobs and responsibilities in the classroom is a great idea. It’s something that many early years educators already do. “Asking preschoolers for help not only promotes kindness, empathy, and a sense of purpose, it also [Keep Reading]

Preshool Clues: Raising Smart, Inspired, and Engaged Kids in a Screen-Filled World by Angela C. Santomero For the past month, my Teaching Tip Tuesday posts have been directly inspired by the wisdom in this book. First, we looked at how we can use [Keep Reading]

Some people think optimism is an inherent trait. There are optimists in this world and there are pessimists. But what if you could teach optimism? Wouldn’t that be a great trait to instill in our students and young ones. Angela C. Santomero [Keep Reading]

When I first had my daughter, I was determined not to use baby talk around her. I never really saw the benefit of doing so. I thought that I would speak in regular words and sentences and make it appropriate for her age. It is something I have [Keep Reading]

In her book, Preschool Clues, Angela C. Santomero has some great ideas for parents and educators. “To me, the smartest kids are the ones who can survey a situation, have a point of view, express that point of view, and attempt to make steps to [Keep Reading]

Scaffolding is a tool that great educators use instinctively. I don’t like the metaphor behind the term, however. We need a better visual image and story to help illustrate exactly what it means. Angela C. Santomero provides one for us in her [Keep Reading]