Dear struggling teacher, below you will find our 4 big suggestions when approaching this issue with best technology and SIOP practices, Smekens strategies, and utilizing our ELA curriculum resources. Tip #1: Use… Continue reading "Dear Instructional Coaches: Absent Student Struggles"
Below are the changes and updates for Canvas starting April 16th. Change Default Due Time You can change the default due time for your courses. Go to Account Settings or… Continue reading "New April Canvas Updates"
Dear frustrated teacher, below you will find our 3 big suggestions when approaching this issue with de-escalation, Trauma-Informed Care, and SIOP in mind. Tip #1: Don’t take student behavior personally. … Continue reading "Dear Instructional Coaches: Classroom Management Struggles"
If you have yet to open flipgrid, here is your friendly reminder and gentle nudge to give it a try this school year. While there is no substitute for students… Continue reading "Engaging the Selfie-Generation: No-Pressure Interaction and Discussion with Flipgrid"
The majority of my students in my 4th grade classroom are able to use writing to explain their thinking and answer any given problem. They may need sentence starters or… Continue reading "Don’t Overthink Accommodations: Allowing Audio Responses on Seesaw"
In my classroom, I want all students to learn. Don’t we all? But I also want my nights and weekends to myself and not to be spent lesson planning. So… Continue reading "Planning for Success with SIOP Components"
For some teachers, bringing technology into an elementary classroom can be overwhelming. What tools should you use? How much is too much? Or enough? What if the kids break their… Continue reading "5 Ways to Use Edpuzzle with Elementary Students"
Why Should I add Audio? We need to continue to make material that is easily accessible to all of our students. Whether you are presenting a lesson, engaging students in… Continue reading "Adding Audio to Google Slides 3 Ways"
Looking for ways to change up how you use content and language objectives in your classroom? Below find 5 ideas on how to up your game with content and language… Continue reading "5 Ideas to Up Your Game with Content and Language Objectives"
We need to ensure that everything provided to our students are accessible. It wasn’t until I started using the accessibility checker that I noticed easy adjustments to ensure equal access… Continue reading "Why You Should be Using the Accessibility Checker on Canvas"
Practice and Application The 6th component of SIOP is Practice and Application. Practice and Application focuses on how will students will practice both the content and language objectives. It is… Continue reading "Making Learning Concrete with Hands-On Activities and Manipulatives"
All secondary teachers and students have free access to Explain Basics on their self service app store on the iPad. If you haven’t used this iPad app it can be… Continue reading "3 ways to Implement SIOP in under 10 minutes with Explain Basics"