Welcome to Teaching Tips. This is an archive page that features all of the teaching tips that have been posted. Please visit this page often as it will be continually updated with each new tip. Below you find the tips in the order they have appeared on the site. If you have any questions, comments,…

This is a picture of my classroom before the students arrived in the morning for the first day of school. I set up mats for each student to sit down on the floor. In front of those mats, I placed a hula-hoop with a name tag, a pencil case, and the first assignment. I instructed…

I think it is important for children to learn the basic number facts. In this day and age, we can get too caught up in letting technology solve all of our problems for us. It is too easy to reach for a calculator or use the one built into our computers to solve basic problems.…

I found this excellent resource a few years ago that I have used countless times in the classroom. It is called Nikki’s Map Adventures. It is a great resource to use in the first few weeks of school. There are seven lesson plans that are easy to follow and really engage students. The unit is…

Nobody likes homework. I know that I sure don’t. I try to get most of my work done at school during my planning times. It’s part of my teaching philosophy to keep it at school. That’s why I’ve really been thinking about what I want my homework program to look like this year. I discussed…

This is an excellent unit to start off your Language Arts program. It is called “Fairy Tale Friends and Foes.”  It was originally meant for Grade 2 classes in Catholic school but I have adapted it over the years to use in public schools for several different grades. I like how you can teach the…

My best advice for the first day of school is to plan, plan, plan, and over-plan. You should have your day structured so well that there will never be any lag time. You need to involve the students in some easy work right away, first thing in the morning. I usually have them do an…

I wanted to put together a New Teacher Guide to help all of those teachers who are busily preparing for their first teaching assignment. I remember all the effort I put into organizing my classroom, collecting resources, and writing my year plan and lesson plans for that first week of school. I know that it…

Dear Parents and Guardians, I think we need to continue learning even though it is summer vacation. Summer is an important time for families. It gives parents a chance to spend some quality time with their kids. Time is the most important gift you can give to your child. I would like you and your…

You probably read the title for this post and said, “What? Summer homework! What kind of a teacher assigns homework over the summer?” But the truth is, children need educational experiences over the summer. There have been countless studies done on this and there is plenty of data to suggest that after having two months…