I got a lot out of Barbara Coloroso’s book, Kids Are Worth It. I took pages and pages of notes when I read it. The book is now full of underlines and margin notes. I never used to be able to write in my books. I didn’t want to mess them up. I wanted them…

Far too many times, teachers capture the attention and engagement of their class and then lose it by adding some unnecessary delay between the hook and the delivery of the content. For example, they tell a powerful story that has the class in the palm of their hand. Then, upon finishing the story they have…

Richard Byrne runs an amazing wesbite called “Free Technology for Teachers.” I cannot say enough good things about it. The site is updated daily with all sorts of great resources that teachers can use in the classroom for free! I love how he maintains a list of alternatives to YouTube. There are certain school boards and districts…

Sometimes as parents and teachers, we are afraid to let our kids make bad choices. We want to steer them in a direction that will avoid a negative consequence. So, we tell them what to do and what to think. But ultimately, this harms them in ways we probably never even considered. Barbara Coloroso breaks…

Students should work with numbers on a regular basis. Adding, subtracting, dividing, multiplying, solving for x; all of these things have their place and value in education. Unfortunately, over the past few years, mathematics pedagogy has suggested that students need not waste their time learning number facts. Teachers have been dissuaded in using any of…

I have a great teaching resource that I want to develop. The only problem is that I am not much of an artist. I am looking for someone to draw 130 clip-art style images. These sketches need to be easily recognizable and in vibrant colours. They also need to be equally sized in a square…

So you want to be a teacher and you don’t have any experience in the classroom outside of what you learned in teacher’s college. Don’t worry, you can still rock that first job interview. Here are things you should think about before going to that Occasional Teacher Interview. What would you do / have you…

“Sometimes it’s OK to do things in class because it increases the fun factor and fosters positive feelings about school. “ It’s Not a Waste of Time Doing a quick game, activity, or challenge is not a waste of time. If you do such an activity, you might notice the following – students cheering on…

It’s March Break and it can be quite tempting to use this time to do some planning for the rest of the school year. I highly advocate leaving school completely behind for one week. Do some reading Watch movies Go on vacation (if you can afford it) Take a day trip (if you can’t) Get…

Welcome to the third post in a series focusing on the methodology Dave Burgess lays out in his book, Teach Like a Pirate.  Day three, according to Burgess, is absolutely critical. It is a day where you can get the reluctant learners on board. It is the day where you can sell your program and…