Teaching Tips
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The Pitfalls of Social Media in Education
At the start of the school year, I had a good idea on how to open up the lines of communication between home and school. My idea? To use the social media sites that people already use on a regular basis. As such, I entered into the world of Facebook. Three months into the school…
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Report Card Comments
Report card comments should be specific to the child. Each comment should reflect what your student has accomplished in the reporting period, what areas they may have had trouble in, and next steps for improvement. It can feel like a huge undertaking when first starting to come up with your own personalized comments. The comments…
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Teaching Tip – Assessment and Marking
Welcome to Teaching Tip Tuesday! Every week I share with you a tip that I hope you will find useful in your teaching. You can visit the Teaching Tips Archive to see all of the tips in the order I have posted them over the years. Please check that page as I will continue to…
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Point Out the Positive
Larry Ferlazzo is a dedicated teacher who has a weekly practice that I can’t help but admire. It only takes a portion of his lunch time and it probably really makes someone’s day. “I walk around campus spotting students — either ones I have now or have had in the past — and they are…
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Teaching Tip – Geography
Teaching Tip Tuesday is a regular feature here on Silent Cacophony. Every week I share with you a tip that I hope you will find useful in your teaching. You can visit the Teaching Tips Archive to see all of the tips in the order I have posted them over the years. Please check that…
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Last Minute Christmas Art Ideas
Let’s look at some last minute Christmas craft ideas. We’ll start with Art Attack, an amazing children’s television show. I have had my students recreate many of the featured art projects in the classroom. If you need a Christmas craft idea, this is a good place to start. I love the Christmas Cone craft. I’ve done this…
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Comic Strip Newsletters
I went to a workshop last week and a fellow teacher told me that she does her newsletters in a comic strip format. I thought it was a great idea for several reasons. It’s Visual! Large blocks of text often get ignored in this fast paced world. A comic strip is something that can be…
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Teaching Tip – History
Welcome to Teaching Tip Tuesday! Every week I share with you a tip that I hope you will find useful in your teaching. You can visit the Teaching Tips Archive to see all of the tips in the order I have posted them over the years. Please check that page as I will continue to…
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The Power of Education (And a Great Film)
The First Grader is an amazing film about the power of education. It’s based on a true story about a primary school in Kenya. This small school is opened because of the government’s promise of free education for all. They are completely overwhelmed with students who want to learn and as such have over 200…
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How I’ve Been Using Facebook in My Teaching
As an experiment this year, I decided to embrace social media to help open the lines of communication with students and parents. It’s only three months into the school year, but I thought I’d share with you my progress thus far. I started up a professional Facebook account this summer. This account was meant to…