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Need inspiration... look at any of these teachers accounts!

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We rounded up some of the best teacher Instagrams to follow for great ideas, great content, and classroom inspiration. Check them out and get ready to scroll until your thumbs hurt.

This beautiful account is run by two teachers who curate really great ideas for teachers of all grades and subjects. It's wonderful to scroll through for some new ideas or just to get a glimpse of what some really talented and creative educators are doing in their classrooms!

This account, from an Ontario-based junior teacher of a split grade classroom, is sort of the best of both sides of Instagram. It provides great content, but it also shows a lot of the teacher's real life. It feels like an account of someone who truly wants to get to know and work with other educators. She does live talks frequently on Facebook-so it makes sense that she wants you to feel at home chatting with her about her areas of expertise.

3. Fun, Fresh Ideas for Your Class (@fun_fresh_ideas)

Ok, ok, it's a shameless plug, but I really would love for you to stop by and follow my Instagram account along with all the others. I love the crazy world of education and my account (I hope!) reflects that through a mix of teacher humor, great resources, fun facts to share with your classes, and some pics from my life as well. I think we all are better when we share and collaborate, so I encourage as much of it as I can.

Kristy, the teacher behind 2 Peas and a Dog, also runs a weekly Twitter chat about secondary ELA issues with the owner of another best teacher Instagram account @theliterarymaven . I always think it's a good sign when teachers are actively seeking out ways to work with others to improve their own instruction. 2 Peas and a Dog showcases some really great resources. Her work with Article of the Week ideas is fantastic.

A great Instagram account for art teachers, obviously, but I find myself scrolling through it often for inspiration for my own (non-art) classroom. There are lots of great resources for fantastic looking projects that students of all ages will enjoy. Some of them are holiday related while others are just for fun. But a good number of them tie nicely with different lessons and curriculums.

I wish I was a science teacher every time I scroll through this account. Filled with inspirational quotes from well-known scientists and photos of some of really cool looking experiments, Kesler Science is a teacher Instagram account you should definitely follow if you teach science. I follow it just because it's cool.

Two things I enjoy about ELA Classroom's teacher Instagram account are the weekly poll questions that always make me think and the photos of actual activities going on in her classroom right now. With so many beautiful (but set up specifically to beautiful) pictures on Instagram, it's refreshing to see photos of a classroom that looks like its actively in use. The fact that the resources ELA Classroom creates are amazingly useful and helpful is just a really nice bonus.

Nitty Gritty Science is just a really sharp looking teacher Instagram account. Photos of interactive science journals, bulletin boards I actually to get up close to, and links to awesome stuff like STEM books for girls makes this a very fun account to scroll through.

I wish someone had made math look so fun for me when I was in school. This colorful teacher Instagram account is full of resources that not only look practical and easy to implement but and memorable. I feel like I could use the units of capacity chart in my kitchen today!

This teacher Instagram account is full of ways to get movement and meaning into social studies curriculum. Almost every picture is of student engagement. They're sorting, they're placing, they're determining importance, ordering things, etc. It's awesome. In a world where so many students say, "Why do we have to learn about " This Instagram account will definitely give any social studies teacher some solid responses and inspiration for how to make social studies relevant and meaningful.

Foreign language teachers often get left out when we compile lists of great resources for teachers. World Language Café is a great Instagram account to check out if you're a Spanish or French teacher. Bright, colorful, and full of great lesson plans and fun ideas for language-based activities, it will definitely give you ideas for your next school year.

This Instagram account might just be my personal favorite because I think it really captures how an app can be used to bring people together in unexpected ways. Subway Book Review shows photos of people and the books they are reading while riding the subway (obviously) and asks them to give a quick review. As an English teacher, my mind immediately goes to how I could create a similar project in my high school (and also adds five to six more books to my "must read" list).

13. Cloud Appreciation Society (@cloudappsoc)

Ok, this Instagram account might not have a ton of educational value unless you're a science teacher doing a unit on weather and cloud formations, but there is something very soothing about the Cloud Appreciation Society's Instagram account. Perfect for when you need a moment of zen after a stressful day!

The two educators who created this account definitely had their fingers on the pulse of the modern educator. What primary or intermediate teacher love Target (especially the dollar section!)? This teacher Instagram account is full of great pictures and tips for items discovered at teachers' favorite store.

For the preschool and primary teachers out there, I Heart Crafty Things has more adorable ideas for tiny people crafts than I thought was humanly possible. It is bound to inspire teachers to trade in the tried-and-true craft they've been doing forever for something fresh and new.

16. To Write Love on Her Arms (@twloha)

I'm including To Write Love on Her Arms, the account of a nonprofit organization "dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury, and suicide" for two reasons. First, mental health issues are becoming such a major part of the job of teachers and this account is geared towards young people. And second, it's just one example of the numerous great Instagram accounts of nonprofit organizations out there.

Other incredible accounts are Neverthirst ( @neverthirst_water ) that strives to bring filters for clean water to communities in need around the world, and World Bicycle Relief ( @worldbicyclerelief ), an organization that provides bicycles to individuals in rural African communities and documents how life-changing a bike can be. As an educator, I'm intrigued by how I can use these accounts to make my fairly sheltered students more aware and empathetic toward the rest of the world.

I'm ending my list with the Instagram account for the Smithsonian (which is a account, by the way, you really should go check it out!). I could have included a million other accounts for just about every museum, national park, or public organization in the world. Imagine the possibilities for your classroom! A few of my favorites are Zion National Park ( ), The National Gallery in London ( @nationalgallery ), and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association ( ) but with so many amazing Instagram accounts, it is really hard to choose!
What do you think are the best teacher Instagrams? What education-related Instagram accounts do you find yourself returning to again and again? Let us know in the comments or @weareteachers and @fun_fresh_ideas!

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17 Best Teacher Instagrams (and Other Accounts We Love to Follow) - WeAreTeachers

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We rounded up some of the best teacher Instagrams to follow for great ideas, great content, and classroom inspiration. Check them out and get ready to scroll until your thumbs hurt. This beautiful account is run by two teachers who curate really great ideas for teachers of all grades and subjects.

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Read the book then have students use post its to answer

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jana Guerra & Ashley Krause (@weheartteaching)

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Fun math twist to help students learn math!

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jana Guerra & Ashley Krause (@weheartteaching)

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A post shared by Shan (@teachingonthegc)

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"The kiddos will be excited to “Choose the Operation” tomorrow: addition or subtraction! They always struggle with word problems, so maybe this will help! (It’s a wonder what some butcher paper will do!" -Pencils and Polygons

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Elizabeth Garcia (@pencilsandpolygons)

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Stay organized and make having a sub hassle-free

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This classroom management guide gives teachers ideas tools to implement in their classrooms to provide a happy environment for their students and deal with daily behavioral issue. With these tips, the classroom will be a happy learning environment.

A link provided to an online version too!

Thank you for visiting my store!

Pam

Tools to help you implement a positive behavior plan:
Classroom Management Rules, Awards, Rewards and more!

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This classroom management guide gives teachers ideas tools to implement in their classrooms to provide a happy environment for their students and deal with daily behavioral issue. With these tips, the classroom will be a happy learning environment. A link provided to an online version too!Thank you...

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Teaching tens (cost money but can be made for free)

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Circling Sums is a must-play game in the primary classroom! The goal of this game is for students to recognize combinations of numbers to find the sum. If your students need help with subtraction, make sure to check out Circling Differences! To prep, simply print and laminate the game boards!

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Fun daily idea or weekly!

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Editable Newsletter Templates make it super simple to keep your parents informed of the classroom happenings! What's included: * A PowerPoint file with editable Header & Titles * 12 monthly templates in 3 different styles {both color and black & white included for a total of 72 templates!}...

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Welcome to Lucky to Be in First!

I am a teacher and I LOVE stamping my kiddos paper to show them a little extra love! I created these stamps to share my love of puns with my first graders!

My stamps are the LARGEST and BEST quality teacher stamps you'll find on Etsy!

Have an idea for a stamp? Convo me!

Accepted payment methods

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Custom Teacher Stamps by Luckytobeinfirst

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You searched for: Luckytobeinfirst! Discover the unique items that Luckytobeinfirst creates. At Etsy, we pride ourselves on our global community of sellers. Each Etsy seller helps contribute to a global marketplace of creative goods. By supporting Luckytobeinfirst, you're supporting a small business, and, in turn, Etsy!

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remind them to sanitize!

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Basic Lesson Plan Template | Teachers Pay Teachers

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Browse basic lesson plan template resources on Teachers Pay Teachers, a marketplace trusted by millions of teachers for original educational resources.

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Writing Prompt Generator - Your story idea generator | Story Shack

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Generate your next creative writing prompt ✔ Close to 3 billion possible fiction ideas and growing ✔ Genres, characters and more!

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What can be done?

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As high-school students plan for graduation and beyond, many families are counting on their local college or university as an affordable next step. But years of rising tuition costs have made that more financially challenging. The average annual net price of a four-year public college, after grants and scholarships, doubled in inflation-adjusted terms from $2,180 in 1997-98 to $4,140 in 2017-18. Including room and board, the average net price increased by $5,660 over this period to $14,940-or nearly $60,000 for a four-year degree.

How did State U. get so expensive? A leading culprit is reduced state support. Since 1987, the typical student at a public college or university has seen the government subsidy for her education drop by $2,337, or roughly one quarter. And in prior research, I found that every $1,000 in state divestment leads colleges to raise tuition by about $300. But what explains falling state support?

In this analysis, I look at state spending decisions over the past 30 years to determine the relationship between state higher-education funding declines and increases in other categories. While we cannot account for every dollar of tuition increases, we can track state spending to see which programs are getting state and local tax dollars, and how that has contributed to declines in higher-education support.

I find that state and local public-welfare spending is easily the dominant factor driving budget decisions, with a $1 increase per capita associated with a $2.44 decrease in per-student higher-education funding-enough to explain the entire average national decline. In particular, my analysis finds that state Medicaid spending is the single biggest contributor to the decline in higher-education funding at the state and local level.

Some have argued that shifting costs to those pursuing a higher degree is appropriate, given the fact that students are disproportionately from higher-income families and are likely to receive ample returns on their higher-education investments. But it can also be said that investing in higher education benefits society as a whole, and that is the matter state policymakers need to focus on. I take no position here on the "best" allocation of state funds but merely seek to document the tradeoffs facing state and local governments.
A Complex Funding Picture
Not all higher-education spending is equally productive, and there have been plenty of eyebrow-raising investments making headlines in recent years. Building a climbing wall, lazy river, or laser-tag area for students to enjoy in their downtime, for example, probably has a different impact than spending the same amount to hire more tenure-track faculty. But the weight of the evidence suggests that, at least on average, public spending on universities leads to both desirable outcomes for students and faster economic growth. College graduates are far more likely to be employed and earn, on average, $32,000 more per year than adults with only a high-school diploma. Degree holders also pay far more in taxes and cost less in public-welfare spending over their lifetimes, with bottom-line estimates ranging from $250,000 to $500,000 per person.

Still, in the past three decades, average state and local funding per enrolled student has dropped by one quarter, or $2,337 (see Figure 1). In 1987, states spent $9,489 per student enrolled in a public two- or four-year school, on average. By 2015 that figure had fallen to $7,152-a modest recovery from a recent low of $6,441 per student in the wake of the Great Recession in 2012. These data include state and local funding, both of which support general operating costs of public institutions. State funding, which comes from the legislature via the state budget, is more often directed toward four-year institutions, while local spending, typically a dedicated education tax, is directed to two-year institutions.

Despite the marked decline in funding per student, it isn't completely accurate to say that states are spending less on higher education; in fact, total state and local spending increased by 13.5 percent (in inflation-adjusted terms) from 1987 to 2015 nationwide. The problem is that the student population increased far more rapidly than state spending during that time, growing by 57.4 percent. Student contributions to colleges' and universities' revenues have increased during this time as a share of the total. By 2012, students' tuition accounted for 25 percent of public college and university revenues, compared to 30 percent from state and local funds.

So long as the primary costs and method of delivery in higher education are based on labor, per-student appropriations will be the correct way to assess the magnitude of public support. Although there are likely efficiency gains associated with increasing scale at small institutions, these institutions are overwhelmingly private and are not representative of where most students attend college. The majority of the new students in higher education over the past several decades attend large public institutions, which have long since exhausted their economies of scale. In other words, the marginal cost of educating a school's 25,000th student is roughly the same as the cost of educating student number 35,000.

Moreover, the consequences for public higher education are the same regardless of whether the numerator or denominator of per-student funding is to blame for the decline. Schools are being asked to do the same thing they have been doing (or more, as is the case in states that have tied funding to performance measures) with less support. When enrollments are rising, however, the dilemma faced by state governments is even more difficult, as maintaining the same level of funding per student necessitates either raising taxes or reducing other types of expenditures.
Trends in Other State Spending
Each year during budget season, the challenge for state and local officials is to allocate their resources to the uses that will have the highest return on investment for society. While justifying investment in higher education is not difficult, its support has nonetheless shrunk, while average per-resident spending in other major categories has increased (see Figure 2).

The spending categories frequently cited as potential contributors to that decline are: K-12 education; public welfare (which includes most Medicaid spending, Supplemental Security Income, food stamps, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families); health and hospitals; police and fire protection; and corrections. To assess the trends in these funding streams, I review data on state and local appropriations for higher education from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), and data for all other spending categories from the Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances.

Based purely on the national trends, spending on K-12 education and public-welfare programs would appear the leading factors: on average, K-12 education spending per state resident increased by 41 percent, from $1,378 in 1987 to $1,946 in 2015, and public-welfare spending nearly tripled, growing from $645 per resident to $1,930. Spending in other major categories also accelerated sharply during that time, though their relatively lower costs have been less consequential for state and local budgets overall: health and hospital spending increased 67 percent, from $465 to $777 per resident; police and fire protection grew 59 percent, from $284 to $450; and corrections grew 66 percent, from $134 to $222.

State and local higher-education appropriations as measured by the IPEDS data offer the best approximation of the resources provided to institutions for the purpose of furnishing educational services to the public, but they do not capture all transfers of resources between state and local governments and higher education. In particular, they do not include grants or contracts that are earmarked for specific services institutions provide, such as commissioned research projects, agricultural service from land grant institutions, or sponsored training programs. In addition, any spending by colleges and universities is typically classified as state spending because public institutions are an extension of government, even though much of their spending is funded by tuition.

This underscores the difficulty in describing the financial link between institutions and the government: not including grants and contracts understates the subsidy that students receive, but including them would certainly overstate the subsidy. Incorporating this category of transfers does not alter the conclusions of the analyses reported below, but it does increase the implied level of government spending on higher education by 10 to 20 percent.
Where Did Higher-Education Funding Go?
Did expansion in other funding categories "cause" the decline in higher-education spending? National data can't answer that question. Just because one type of expenditure is trending upward nationwide, on average, while per-student higher-education spending is declining, it is not necessarily true that one "caused" the other. For example, it could be the case that higher-education spending is falling and K-12 spending is rising, but that states with the largest K-12 increases aren't the same ones cutting higher-education spending.

To shed light on the actual tradeoffs states are facing, I use state-by-state data from 1987 to 2015 to measure the relationship between higher-education appropriations per student and expenditure levels in nine categories: K-12 education, public welfare, health, police and fire protection, corrections, highways and roads, utilities, sanitation, and interest payments on debt. I then use the estimated relationship between each expenditure category and higher-education support, combined with the actual changes over time in each group, to assess how much of the decline in appropriations for higher education is due to each category. I do not control for any other factors, such as the condition of the economy, because doing so would obscure the relationship with higher education spending of any categories that tend to flucuate with the business cycle.

In essence, this is an accounting exercise that takes advantage of the fact that each state's budget is effectively a zero-sum game. The results should not be considered causal in the sense of using what happened in the past to predict future events. For instance, a finding of a strong relationship between spending on public welfare and higher education would suggest that money that was previously spent on supporting higher education was shifted to support welfare programs in years past. But it would not necessarily tell us what could happen next year if welfare spending were to increase again.

The results of my preferred analysis indicate that public-welfare spending in fact explains roughly half of the post-1987 decline in higher-education appropriations, with health accounting for another 23 percent (see Figure 3). Police and fire protection explain 13 percent of the decline, with another 11 percent from the other spending categories of corrections, highways and roads, utilities, sanitation, and interest payments on debt.

Across multiple changes to my methodology, public welfare spending is always the dominant factor, accounting for between 53 percent and 100 percent of the decline in higher-education support. For example, looking at spending per capita within each category rather than total spending reveals that a $1 increase in per-capita public welfare spending is associated with as much as a $2.44 decrease in per-student higher-education funding. Spending on health and on police and fire protection accounts for between zero and 20 percent of the decline in higher-education funding, depending on whether spending is measured on an overall or per-capita basis.

Although it is the spending category with the second-largest overall expansion nationwide in recent decades, K-12 education spending at the individual state level is not related to declines in higher-education support. In fact, state-level changes in K-12 expenditures are positively associated with changes in spending on higher education. This isn't surprising, as governments that see education as a priority likely value both K-12 and higher-education spending. In addition to this positive relationship, K-12 funding is financed in roughly equal proportions between the state and local levels, while public money for higher education comes mostly from states. Thus, there is no evidence that spending on higher education has been displaced by spending on K-12 education.

There are two important caveats. First, these proportions represent averages across all states. In reality, there are 50 different stories to be told about state divestment from higher education. For example, in my home state of Pennsylvania, state funding per student has declined by nearly half since 1987, from $7,609 to $3,955, which is 56 percent more than the national average decline. On the other hand, state and local support has actually grown over the past three decades in six states: Connecticut, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Wyoming.

This same caveat applies to changes in other expenditure categories as well. Some states have increased per-capita public-welfare spending only modestly, such as $647 per resident in Utah, while other states have significantly expanded it, such as a roughly $2,000 increase in Vermont. Although aggregate averages are useful for distilling national trends into component shares, every state is unique along every dimension.

The second caveat is that the expenditure categories used in my analysis are still quite broad. Public welfare, for instance, includes four major programs, from income assistance to Medicaid to food stamps. Further complicating matters, some types of Medicaid spending are categorized as "health." Other programs, such as food stamps, are funded jointly with the federal government. While the federal government pays for the benefits, administrative costs are split evenly with the state. (My analysis only includes the state and local portions of spending on these programs.)

The large number of different programs funded by state and local governments makes it impossible to estimate the sources of divestment from higher education at a finer level than I have done above. However, given the importance of public-welfare and health spending indicated by my findings, and the large increase in state spending on Medicaid (an increase of more than $1,000 per capita since 1987 based on figures from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services), it is safe to conclude that Medicaid has been the single biggest contributor to the decline in higher-education support at the state and local level.

That said, it is unlikely that the Medicaid expansions provided for under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are responsible for much, if any, of the decline in state higher-education funding. In states that accepted the provision, ACA expanded Medicaid coverage to all individuals with incomes less than 138 percent of the federal poverty line. Up until this year, the federal government has paid 100 percent of the costs for newly eligible individuals and maintained 50 percent cost sharing for individuals eligible for Medicaid under pre-ACA rules. This means that increases in medical costs are likely more responsible for putting stress on state budgets than increases in Medicaid enrollment. This may of course change as states start paying part of the costs of new enrollees-the share of the cost for ACA-expansion Medicaid enrollees covered by the federal government is set to decline to 90 percent in 2020-or if the federal government changes the rules governing Medicaid cost sharing.
Conclusions
There has been a gradual decline in public financial support of higher education over the past 30 years. The average state spends $2,337 less today per full-time-equivalent college student than in 1987. This divestment has been passed on to students partly in the form of higher tuition and partly through reduced spending, both of which have been shown to negatively impact students. While the public discussion around college usually focuses on the price paid by students, recent work by economists David Deming and Chris Walters suggests that declines in the amount colleges and universities spend may have a larger impact on student outcomes.

This essay asks a simple question: where did the money go? Reduced spending on higher education must go somewhere¸ and the goal of my analysis is to produce the best possible estimates of where the spending went, the degree to which changes in different categories of spending explain changes in higher-education spending per student.

In reality, there are 50 different answers to this question, but in the aggregate, states have shifted most of their former investment toward public-welfare programs, particularly Medicaid. This finding highlights the struggle state legislatures face to balance the immediate needs of today against investments in the future. Most important, it illustrates that constraining the rise of health-care costs is critical not just for those who care about health-care reform but for the public-higher-education landscape as well.

But it is important to recall that state budgets result from complicated political processes, and that new financial pressures-such as from ailing pension funds or withdrawn federal social-service support-are constantly emerging. Even when we can answer the question, "Where did the money which used to support higher education go?" there is no reason to think that the politicians of tomorrow will make the same choices as the politicians of yesterday.
Douglas Webber is associate professor in the Temple University Department of Economics and a research fellow at the Institute of Labor Economics.

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Higher Ed, Lower Spending: As States Cut Back, Where Has the Money Gone? - Education Next

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As high-school students plan for graduation and beyond, many families are counting on their local college or university as an affordable next step. But years of rising tuition costs have made that more financially challenging. The average annual net price of a four-year public college, after grants and scholarships, doubled in inflation-adjusted terms from $2,180 in 1997-98 to $4,140 in 2017-18.

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What happened after

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In Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31, the U.S. Supreme Court ended the practice of enabling public-sector unions to collect "fair-share" or "agency" fees from employees who decline to join. Although federal law prohibits requiring workers to join a union as a condition of employment, public-sector unions had been allowed to collect some portion of their dues from employees who do not wish to become members. These non-members were required to pay fair-share fees for the non-political activities that benefit all employees covered by the union contract.

The court enshrined the practice in 1977's Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, which the Janus suit sought to undo. In the case, brought by a public-sector employee in Illinois, attorneys argued that public-sector unions' actions and activities are inherently political, and thus the monthly $45 in fees deducted from plaintiff Mark Janus's paychecks violates his First Amendment rights, because it amounts to paying a group to which he does not belong to lobby the government.

It was the third time the justices had heard arguments about fair-share fees in recent years, following Harris v. Quinn in 2014 and Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association in 2016. The justices stopped just short of making fair-share fees illegal in Quinn; Friedrichs ended in a 4-4 ruling after the unexpected passing of Justice Antonin Scalia; and the Abood precedent was upheld by the lower court. The 2017 appointment of Justice Neil Gorsuch gave the issue new life in court, with justices favoring the rights of employees not to be compelled to subsidize political speech they do not support over the rights of unions to charge fees for collective bargaining services.

Speculation about what this Janus defeat will mean for teachers unions has been rampant. Many, if not most, of the analysts who follow education policy and organized labor believe that the ruling will result in decreased power for teachers unions. The logic behind this assumption is simple: teachers unions will lose dues revenue because membership will decrease and former agency-fee payers will cease paying fees for union services. With fewer resources, teachers unions will have less ability to exert their influence in local, state, and federal elections and at the bargaining table. Fewer members, less money, less power. Right?

Not necessarily. Agency fees have been challenged at the state level over the past decade, and several states recently stopped allowing unions to collect them. The passage of those right-to-work laws may have caught state affiliates by surprise, unlike the widely anticipated Janus ruling. Even so, a close look at two of those states, Wisconsin and Michigan, may provide important clues about the future of teachers unions in a post- Janus world.
A Shifting Landscape for "Agency Fees"
Over the last eight years, six states have passed right-to-work legislation that bars unions from assessing fair-share fees for employees who do not wish to belong, in both the public and private sectors: Wisconsin (2011 and 2015), Michigan (2012), Indiana (2012), West Virginia (2016), Kentucky (2017), and Missouri (2017). As of May 2018, there were 22 states that allowed agency fees (see Figure 1).

How did teachers unions fare in the wake of these laws? Were they rendered powerless? Could they adapt? Is a disruption like Janus a chance to reboot for the better?

To explore these questions, we examine state affiliates of the nation's largest teachers union, the National Education Association (NEA), in Wisconsin and Michigan. We look at changes in membership rates, revenues, and campaign contributions from 2009‒16, the six-year period before and after their new right-to-work laws were adopted. We also interviewed two dozen teachers, administrators, and union officials in Michigan to gather insights about how they have coped on the ground.

We compare the Wisconsin and Michigan membership, revenue, and campaign-contribution trends to those of NEA affiliates in two other groups of states: the 25 states that allowed agency fees during the six-year period, which we call "agency-shop" states (including West Virginia, Missouri, and Kentucky), and the 23 states that had right-to-work laws on the books during this time and therefore did not allow fees, which we call "right-to-work" states.

We focus on Wisconsin and Michigan because the timing of their right-to-work laws provides us with sufficient pre- and post-reform data. We look solely at NEA state affiliates because the nation's second-largest teachers union, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), does not maintain clearly defined state-level organizations in all states. Finally, we consider Indiana a right-to-work state in our analysis because, although it did not officially adopt a right-to-work law until 2012, it has prohibited mandatory union membership and fee collection for teachers since 1995.
Declining Membership
As expected, NEA affiliate membership decreased in states that shifted to right-to-work status in recent years (see Figure 2). In Wisconsin, NEA membership dropped by more than half in the aftermath of the 2011 reform, from approximately 85,000 members to some 35,000 members in 2016. In Michigan, NEA membership was already dropping before the 2012 reform, in line with overall declines in the size of its student enrollment and teaching force. But the pace of the decline accelerated after 2013, with the number of members dropping from roughly 115,000 to 95,000 in 2016 and outpacing the continued decline in the number of teachers. In both comparison groups, membership rates remained steady.

We more formally estimate how much membership trends in Michigan and Wisconsin deviate from those in states that did and did not allow fair-share fees using a statistical model that takes baseline trends into account. By comparing changes in Wisconsin and Michigan to changes in agency-shop states and states that had already adopted right-to-work laws, we account for contemporaneous changes in, for example, the national mood toward teachers unions or the overall health of the national economy, that might influence union resource and membership levels.

Our results from these models are descriptive rather than causal; apart from movement over time, we do not include controls for other factors that may affect outcomes. More important, agency-shop and right-to-work states differ from Michigan and Wisconsin in many ways, and so are not perfect comparison groups. The comparative analysis is nonetheless helpful in anticipating the likely consequences of the Janus decision.

Results from these models suggest that in the five years following right-to-work reform in Wisconsin, the NEA affiliate lost approximately 52 percent of its members, or 45,263, compared to stable trends in the agency-shop states. When comparing Wisconsin to right-to-work states, the membership decrease is 79 percent, or 68,247. In Michigan, in the three years after reform, the state NEA affiliate lost approximately 21 percent of its members, or 24,000, compared to trends in both the agency-shop and right-to-work states.

Although the precise reasons for decreases in union membership after the switch to right-to-work status are uncertain, our qualitative work in Michigan provides some clues. We interviewed 24 people in two school districts and at the state's NEA affiliate, including district leaders, bargaining team members, local union presidents and members, and Michigan Education Association (MEA) leaders. In particular, one Michigan union leader told us:

I think a lot of the reason we lost numbers was just the inconvenience that was created by no longer allowing the school district to pull the union dues out of members' paychecks. Now they're actually physically paying. It's kind of like when you put money into your retirement fund and you don't even realize that it's out of your paycheck. Now teachers are having to actually do it on their own with their own credit cards and their own bank accounts. I think that changed the mindset, "Oh I'm spending this amount of money" . . . Or people are members and then they get a new credit card, and it's no longer getting pulled out, so they're like, "Ah, forget it." We've had a few of those. That seems to be part of it.
Dwindling Dues
If the inconvenience of having to actively choose to pay dues resulted in a loss of membership, as our interview subject suggests, that would translate into a commensurate loss of dues revenue. Indeed, that was the case (see Figure 3). In Wisconsin, dues revenue per teacher fell from $394 in 2011 to $116 by 2016. In Michigan, dues revenue per teacher fell from $761 in 2013 to $574 by 2016. In contrast, agency-shop states experienced steady increases in dues revenue per teacher over the same time period. Dues revenue per teacher remained relatively flat in right-to-work states during that time, as would be expected.

Our statistical analyses comparing these trends over time suggest that dues revenue per teacher decreased by $316 in Wisconsin and $186 in Michigan relative to agency-shop states by the end of 2016, or five years after reform in Wisconsin and three years after reform in Michigan. These figures suggest that, in states that adopted right-to-work laws, teachers unions not only lost power in numbers, but
they also lost muscle in terms of dollar resources.

Together, the evidence presented here suggests that, if trends from Wisconsin and Michigan are any guide, teachers unions may be permanently crippled in the wake of Janus. They will lose membership, which will result in steep declines in revenues, which in turn may curtail their ability to affect the policy process. Already, the NEA has been planning to cut its upcoming two-year budget by 13 percent, or $50 million, and is estimating membership losses at 10 percent, or 300,000 nationwide.

But in a panel discussion hosted by the Education Writers Association before the Janus decision was announced, NEA president Lily Eskelsen García expressed optimism about a resurgence in strength for teachers unions.

We're seeing a greater level of activity now than we ever have before. But we still have to have one-on-one conversations with every educator. They need to know how we can help. The collective voice is all we have . . . and we're not going anywhere.

She echoed those thoughts again in response to the decision.

We're actually sitting down, one fee-payer at a time, going "On this day, you stopped paying fees. . . What would it take to have you be a member? . . . we need you to be a member not just to pay for that service, but to be a part of that greater voice."

García may be right. As she notes, these are dark days for unions, but teachers unions have adapted to difficulty before. Rather than decimate union power, Janus might be the impetus for teachers unions to return to their roots and become a way for teachers to express their dissatisfaction with public education today.
Staying Political, Getting Flexible
In other research, we have found evidence that teachers unions are growing accustomed to challenges and learning to adapt in response. For example, they have traditionally garnered their strength and political power by aligning with Democrats in office, at both the state and federal level, including by making significant contributions to the Democrats' political campaigns. But in the past two election cycles, Congress has flipped to Republican majorities in both the House of Representatives (2012) and Senate (2016). Rather than accepting defeat, teachers unions re-allocated their contributions and cultivated new relationships with a contingent of Republican lawmakers with whom, on at least some issues, they could agree.They adapted. They sought to maintain some influence inside the Beltway. They took wins where they could.

We see evidence of similar flexibility in Wisconsin: in the wake of state-level adoption of right-to-work legislation, campaign contributions on a per-candidate basis by election cycle increased (see Figure 4). In contrast, campaign contributions by Michigan teachers unions decreased in the election cycle following that state's right-to-work reform. Interestingly, teachers union campaign contributions in agency-shop states have been increasing steadily over the last decade, whereas contributions in those that have remained right-to-work states have decreased slightly, on average. It seems that teachers unions may be ramping up their contributions in agency-shop states to preserve what policy strongholds they have left or to stymie any additional reforms that might come on the coattails of the Janus decision.

With revenues down, where is this money coming from? We reviewed NEA tax filings, which include expenditures, and found evidence that affiliates in both Wisconsin and Michigan have drastically cut non-political spending relative to affiliate organizations in agency-shop and right-to-work states, including cutting union employees' salary and benefits. The Wisconsin affiliate also has laid off union staff. By adapting how they use their resources, teachers unions may be able to spend more on elections, even as their membership and revenues shrink, in an attempt to foster friendlier policy outcomes.
Focusing on Teachers' Voice
Another response to membership and revenue declines comes in the form of a return to the founding purpose of the unions: to give voice to a set of workers. We often think about teachers union power in terms of unions' influence on electoral outcomes and the agendas of the politicians they help to elect. But they were founded to organize teachers and help them fight for what they believed they deserved. The unions do this not only by contributing to the campaigns of friendly legislators, but also by listening to their membership and standing for the working conditions and policies that benefit rank-and-file teachers.

It is possible-and we argue even likely-that the Janus ruling will cause union leadership to listen to their members in new ways. Unlike the status quo, when even non-members can be required to pay for union services, they will need to fight for every member, to convince them their services are worth paying for.

Evidence from our Michigan interviews suggests that this is exactly what teachers unions will do. We uncovered multiple examples of targeted efforts to attract and retain members, ranging from reminding members of major bargaining victories to describing money-saving membership benefits and fun "extras" intended to build morale. For example, one local union leader discussed strategies to promote the union's value to its current members:

I really think it's more about that message that we try to send out to our members and to people who aren't members on what we're actually giving them and what they're getting for their money that they don't necessarily see. I'm constantly letting them know that if we weren't at the bargaining table this last time, [they] wouldn't have gotten this or that. You've got to just continually remind them.

In a similar vein, an MEA leader with whom we spoke told us:

You're trying to keep membership. People that leave the union are saying, "Why am I paying these dues? What am I getting out of it? Look at everything we're losing. What are you doing for us?" And so our response to that is, "What would it be without us? Because we're fighting. Everything you have, you have because of us . . . the MEA has done a very good job saying, "Hey! Would you have ever seen this without the MEA fighting for you? This never would have happened without us!"

Other union leaders told us of new ways to provide benefits to members, and to attract and retain members to the group. In some cases, these came in the form of monetary benefits not attached to compensation, such as college tuition subsidies for members' children and grandchildren and discounts on homeowners' and auto insurance. One local union leader told us that the MEA is providing funds for extras like intra-district events and games "to do things to get new members involved . . . We focus more on the members now than we have in the past."

Another tactic union leaders mentioned was making sure younger teachers considered membership key to their professionalism. One union leader said:

I hope to build a culture that moves a mindset that the union is watching out for everybody. How do we get to our younger members? I think that when politicians try and put us in this box that we're just about protecting bad teachers and duty-free lunch then yes, new teachers who think they're "all that and a bag of chips" believe they don't need the union. If they know what we're really about-social justice, high-quality standards, and helping you be the best professional-then they want to be a part of that.
Life after Janus
The timing of the Janus decision has coincided directly with both the so-called "war on teachers" and the tail end of economic recovery from the Great Recession. In states like those that adopted right-to-work laws in the past decade, which have been hit hard by the recession and adopted reforms like limiting tenure and making performance evaluations more robust, teachers have also experienced flat state budgets or cuts to education spending after decades of expansion, as well as reduced investments in services for children.

It is no surprise, then, that the voice function of the union has been widely on display in recent months. No fewer than six states have seen full or partial teacher strikes, including West Virginia and Kentucky-two states that recently passed right-to-work legislation. In addition, both of these states and the other states that have experienced walkouts-North Carolina, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Arizona-have seen legislative changes to important teacher protections, including evaluation, tenure, and retirement or pension plans. In the states where teachers may feel most under attack, teachers and their unions are rising up and using their voices to protest. And these protests don't just address traditional bread-and-butter union issues like teachers' own compensation, but also more general improvements to public education funding.

If teachers unions and teachers respond to the Janus ruling as they are responding to the removal of other protections, we may see the pundits who believe that Janus portends the end of teachers unions-and the reformers who intend for Janus to bring unions to their knees-surprised by their resiliency. By causing teachers unions to return to collective action on behalf of their members, the Supreme Court decision may, in the end, invigorate the unions that these court cases and the groups that sponsored them intended to incapacitate.

As is fitting given this argument, we end by drawing on the voice of one teachers union leader in Michigan:

Right-to-work to me isn't an issue, because I think people are still joining their unions. They believe in public education. They believe in democracy. They know it's the right thing to do. Who else is our voice?
Bradley D. Marianno is assistant professor of educational policy and leadership at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Katharine O. Strunk is the Clifford E. Erickson Distinguished Professor of Education Policy at Michigan State University.
Note: A slightly different version of this article appeared prior to the Janus decision and was updated in July 2018.

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After Janus: A new era of teachers union activism - Education Next

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In Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31, the U.S. Supreme Court ended the practice of enabling public-sector unions to collect "fair-share" or "agency" fees from employees who decline to join.

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The model of special education known as inclusion, or mainstreaming, has become more prevalent over the past 10 years, and today, more than 60 percent of all students with disabilities (SWDs) spend 80 percent or more of their school day in regular classrooms, alongside their non-disabled peers (see Figure 1). This is not the full inclusion favored by some disability advocates, wherein all SWDs would be educated in inclusive classrooms all day; however, many supporters celebrate the increasing acceptance of differently abled students in general education as an opportunity to improve the academic and long-term trajectories of these traditionally underserved learners. In theory, inclusion provides SWDs with access to the grade-level curriculum and the same educational opportunities as their peers.

Unfortunately, research has yielded only weak evidence that inclusion confers benefits on SWDs. Studies that report better academic and behavioral outcomes for SWDs who are taught in a general-education setting suffer from methodological flaws. Even less evidence suggests that general-education teachers are adequately prepared to meet the unique academic and behavioral needs of SWDs. Further, studies of inclusion seem to assume that SWDs are educated in a vacuum; that is, they fail to examine the experiences of non-disabled classmates.

In this article, I explore policies and existing research on inclusion to describe what we know, what we don't, and how current knowledge should inform decisions about where to educate SWDs. An underlying theme of this discussion is that inclusion influences not only SWDs but also their peers and teachers. The interplay between and among these three groups suggests areas of research that can inform future discussion about inclusion and how it can work well for all stakeholders.
The Least-Restrictive Environment
Inclusion did not become the widespread practice it is today because of a robust evidence base that supports its effectiveness. Rather, it is prevalent because of federal laws that establish special rights for SWDs and their parents. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), first signed into law in 1975 as the Education for all Handicapped Children Act, mandates that SWDs receive a free appropriate public education (FAPE) in the least-restrictive environment (LRE) possible. A student's FAPE and LRE are established through a team process that produces an Individualized Education Program (IEP). After a school identifies a student with a disability, it convenes an IEP team meeting. This team typically consists of the student's parents or guardians; special- and general-education teachers with knowledge of the student; school staff members who can interpret the results of evaluations; other service providers; and, in many cases, the student. At this meeting, the team identifies annual goals for the student. These individualized goals determine what constitutes an "appropriate education" for that particular student.

Once the goals are in place, the IEP team discusses the instruction, related services, and accommodations the student requires to meet the goals. During this stage of the IEP process, the team decides where the student will receive services-for example, in a regular classroom; in a regular classroom with the support of a paraprofessional or special-education teacher, or perhaps with additional support in a resource room or pullout setting; or in a self-contained special-education classroom. IDEA requires that students be educated in regular classrooms unless their academic and behavioral needs cannot be met in that setting even with the use of supplemental aids and services.

Consider the following two examples. A 1st-grade student with a speech or language impairment might require one hour of speech therapy a week from a speech/language pathologist to improve his enunciation. His IEP team may also decide that he needs accommodations in the classroom, as his impairment influences his reading fluency. Apart from his weekly speech therapy, the student would attend a general-education class with the occasional accommodation for his reading skills. Removing this student from the regular classroom because of an enunciation problem would be inappropriate: the student can likely make progress there with the suitable supplemental services and accommodations.

Contrast this student with a 5th-grade student receiving special-education services for a specific learning disability who is struggling with sounding out words while his non-disabled peers are focused on reading comprehension. Because this student has such significant educational needs, the IEP team would likely decide that he should receive some of his reading instruction outside of the regular classroom.

These examples illustrate the individualized nature of placement decisions. The IEP team determines where a child will be educated based on the services the student needs and where those services can practicably be delivered. But IDEA explicitly states that most SWDs should be taught in the general-education classroom, and IEP team members may be unduly influenced by this requirement. For example, IDEA requires that states report to Congress each year the percentage of the school day that SWDs spend in general-education classrooms, in addition to other indicators such as dropout rates, SWDs' participation in assessments, their proficiency rates on these tests, and suspension and expulsion rates. The Department of Education compiles these data in an annual report to Congress and uses the information to determine if a state is in compliance with IDEA. In this publication, data related to the setting in which SWDs are educated are disaggregated by state, yet the data regarding student academic outcomes are not. The reports therefore appear to assess the extent to which students are receiving an appropriate education by the location in which they are served.

There is little federal guidance on whether schools can consider students' classmates and teachers in their decisions about where SWDs are educated, further complicating placement judgments. IDEA only briefly addresses the needs of non-disabled classmates: schools are required to consider the use of positive behavioral interventions when an SWD's behavior affects his classmates' learning. Beyond this mention of peers, federal policies pay scant attention to the interplay between SWDs, their classmates, and general-education teachers. Special-education case law includes conflicting opinions as to whether placement decisions can be based on how a student might influence their classmates. What is clear is that placement is to be an individualized decision determined by the needs of each student with a disability, but it seems unlikely that a student will derive appropriate benefit from the prescribed services if his placement causes disruption or detriment to his peers and teachers.
Access to the Curriculum
A key assumption of IDEA is that including SWDs in the regular classroom will expose them to grade-level, general-education curriculum. Yet exposure may not result in progress in that curriculum. Research suggests that many SWDs will not be able to advance along grade-level academic standards with the instruction typically provided in regular classrooms, even with accommodations and supports. For example, a recent study by Lynn Fuchs and colleagues compared the size of the math achievement gap between students with or at risk for learning disabilities and their non-disabled peers. SWDs were randomly assigned to two groups. In the first one, students with or at risk for disabilities received intensive fractions instruction, exemplifying special-education techniques, while those in the second group were exposed to fractions instruction in the regular classroom with accommodations based on the principles of Universal Design for Learning (that is, instruction that includes multiple means for students to express what they know). The math achievement gap between students with or at risk for disabilities and without disabilities in the regular classroom setting was twice as large as the gap in the first group (see Figure 2).

It is a mistake to equate the setting in which a student is educated (that is, the general-education classroom) with the actual progress a student is making. Such an assumption ignores the fact that students are found eligible for special-education services precisely because they are failing to progress in general education. Placement data may suggest that SWDs are being exposed to the general-education curriculum, but achievement data suggest that they are not actually learning the curriculum: SWDs placed in general-education classrooms continue to lag dramatically behind their peers. A recent meta-analysis that I conducted with my colleagues Doug Fuchs and Joe Wehby estimated that SWDs score about 1.2 standard deviations below their non-disabled peers in reading, a gap that translates to more than three years of academic growth. Achievement gaps between SWDs and their peers are similarly large in math. Though federal laws stress the importance of educating SWDs in the regular classroom, there is no good evidence that placement there improves the outcomes of these students.
Inclusion and Student Outcomes
That's not to say that researchers have not examined the issue. Many studies have compared SWDs who are educated in inclusive settings to those who are educated in special-education settings, generally finding that the former have better academic, social, and long-term outcomes. For example, data from the Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study conducted from 2000 to 2006 show that SWDs who spent 75 percent or more of their school day in inclusive settings scored higher in reading comprehension and math than those who spent 25 percent or less of their day in such settings. These results fueled the push to move more SWDs into general-education classrooms.

More-recent work also finds that SWDs educated in general-education settings have better outcomes. Roddy Theobald and colleagues observed that high-school students with disabilities in Washington State who spent more time in general-education settings had higher reading scores than their peers who had less time in such settings, even after taking into account differences in prior achievement and a wide range of student characteristics. They were also more likely to graduate on time and enroll in college than students educated in more-restrictive settings. Laura Schifter has reported similar results regarding graduation for students in Massachusetts: SWDs educated in general-education classrooms have higher probabilities of graduating than their peers who were educated in more-isolated settings. These recent studies and others have led many to conclude that inclusion benefits SWDs.

Unfortunately, this determination ignores a major limitation of the current research base: the failure to account for selection bias. Students with higher academic abilities or fewer behavioral challenges are more likely to be placed in inclusive settings, while their peers who may have the same disability label but greater learning or behavioral needs are placed in special-education settings. The consistent finding that SWDs have better outcomes when educated in general-education settings likely reflects this bias. Even in studies that account for students' prior levels of academic achievement, the researchers may not capture all the aspects of a student, such as his behavior, that can influence both the setting in which he is placed and his future outcomes. A student's educational placement is an IEP team decision and may be based on a host of factors not included in the administrative data sets to which researchers typically have access. This makes estimating the true causal effect of inclusion on student outcomes nearly impossible.

One study does improve on these others in regard to selection bias. In 2002, Eric Hanushek and colleagues used Texas students whose special-education classification changed over time to examine the influence of special-education classification (as determined by a student having an IEP) and educational setting on students' math outcomes. The researchers first compared the students' progress in school years when they had an IEP to their progress when they did not have an IEP, allowing each student to serve as his or her own control. They found that students scored higher on state math assessments when they had an IEP than when they did not. This result suggests that special-education services may benefit the students who receive them. When the researchers examined SWDs' math achievement by the setting in which they were educated, however, they found that SWDs performed neither better nor worse in regular classrooms than in special-education settings. While this study design is stronger than that of the research discussed above, its results only extend to students who took the regular state assessment and whose special-education eligibility changed over time, thus excluding students with more-significant disabilities. The one clear takeaway is that accounting for unmeasured differences between students who are placed in different types of settings can influence estimates of the association between general-education placement and student outcomes.

In sum, ample correlational evidence confirms that SWDs have better academic and social outcomes when they spend more time in general-education classrooms. But our ability to draw conclusions from these studies is limited, because it is likely that SWDs who would be expected to have better academic and social outcomes are more often included in general-education classrooms than their peers with more-intensive needs.
Inclusion and Peer Outcomes
A key component of inclusion is that SWDs are educated with their peers who do not have disabilities, yet little research has examined whether and how SWDs' outcomes are influenced by their peers-and vice versa. The scarcity of research in this area is surprising, as research on peer effects in general education shows that students' classmates shape their educational experiences. Particularly concerning are findings that students' academic and behavioral outcomes are influenced by classmates who exhibit challenging behaviors. For example, Scott Carrell and Mark Hoekstra found that an increase in the percentage of students' classmates who had experienced domestic violence-a variable highly correlated with children's behavior-negatively affected students' academic outcomes and increased their behavioral problems (see " Domino Effect," research, Summer 2009). Further, exposure to a peer who was more likely to exhibit challenging behavior led students to complete less schooling and earn less as adults. These findings are relevant to the topic of inclusion because SWDs have a higher probability of exhibiting challenging behavior than their peers without disabilities.

Most students without disabilities have at least two SWDs in their classes, but few studies have examined whether SWDs affect their classmates. Early studies that addressed peer effects in inclusive classrooms using older data did not identify any negative academic consequences of inclusion for students without disabilities. However, more-recent research based on the U.S. Department of Education's Early Childhood Longitudinal Studies (ECLS) has identified some worrisome findings, particularly related to the inclusion of students with an emotional/behavioral disorder (EBD).

These recent studies have examined both academic and social outcomes of students without disabilities in inclusive classrooms. In a 2009 study, Jason Fletcher found that having a classmate with an EBD was associated with a 0.09 standard-deviation decrease in students' math scores and a 0.13 standard-deviation decrease in students' reading scores. In 2016, Michael Gottfried and colleagues reported that students without disabilities who had a classmate with an EBD were 1.42 times more likely to be chronically absent than those who did not have such a classmate. A 2014 study by Gottfried found that students without disabilities were rated by teachers as having more behavior problems, lower levels of self-control, and lower interpersonal skills when they were in classrooms with SWDs, not just students with an EBD.

These studies, like those relating inclusion to SWDs' outcomes, are correlational and must be interpreted with caution. Yet they improve on prior work by limiting comparisons to students attending the same school. This approach allows the researchers to rule out the possibility that their results reflect differences in the characteristics of schools that make greater use of the inclusion model. These studies do not account for the sorting of students within schools based on unobserved characteristics, such as if students who exhibit more problem behavior owing to a change in their home life in a specific school year are grouped in classes with more SWDs. However, this type of sorting seems less likely than the sorting of higher-achieving SWDs into inclusive classrooms, which is a natural byproduct of the IEP process. Though this body of work is small and just emerging, the findings underline the importance of examining whether and how the inclusion of SWDs in general-education classrooms may change the environment in ways that affect their peers.
Inclusion and Teachers
Teachers are likely a key element in the successful inclusion of SWDs, but again few studies have investigated how general-education teachers are influenced by the presence of SWDs. An older body of research examined the attitudes of general-education teachers toward having SWDs in their classrooms. These studies reported that general educators were accepting of SWDs in their classrooms under certain conditions-for example, if additional supports were provided to the teacher and if the SWDs did not exhibit disruptive behavior. Yet both surveys and qualitative studies found that general-education teachers often do not have training, or feel they have the proper skills, to meet the academic and behavioral needs of SWDs while also teaching their non-disabled peers.

Two recent studies have aimed to assess the experiences of general educators with SWDs in their classrooms. These works are, again, correlational and not causal. Using an administrative data set from North Carolina, I estimated the association between the percentage of SWDs in teachers' classes and the rate of teacher turnover, as defined by changing schools or leaving teaching in the state. I found that the probability of turnover increased as the percentage of SWDs in teachers' classes went up if the teacher was not certified in special education, after controlling for differences in student, teacher, and school characteristics. This increase was especially pronounced when teachers had students with an EBD in their classrooms (see Figure 3). All else being equal, teachers with classes in which 20 percent of students had an EBD were 2.15 percentage points more likely to leave their school or teaching than teachers who had students with disabilities in their classes, but none with an EBD. I also found that the teachers who, based on other characteristics, were most likely to change schools or leave teaching were actually the least likely to have SWDs. This suggests that schools are not assigning SWDs to teachers who are more likely to leave and attenuates concerns that the relationship between the presence of students with an EBD and turnover is an artifact of selection bias.

Teachers might also be changing their instruction in undesirable ways when they have SWDs in their classrooms. North Cooc recently examined the amount of time teachers of inclusive classrooms reported that they spent on instruction, using data from an international survey of teachers. He found that teachers reported that they spent less time on instruction and more time on classroom management when their classes contained more SWDs. The association between instructional time and having SWDs in the classroom nearly disappeared once Cooc accounted for the number of students in teachers' classes that exhibited disruptive behavior.

These studies provide preliminary evidence that the presence of SWDs affects teachers in ways that could negatively influence the teachers themselves with regard to turnover, the outcomes of SWDs, and their peers without disabilities. Clearly, more research is needed to understand how teachers address the needs of SWDs in their classrooms and how inclusion changes the demands placed on educators with potentially negative consequences for all students.

Research on general-education teachers and their role in educating students with and without disabilities is particularly important given that general-education teachers are the primary educators for both of these populations. Jim Dewey and colleagues reported in 2017 that the number of special-education teachers declined more than 17 percent between 2005 and 2012; the number of students with special needs also decreased, but by only 4 percent. The student-to-teacher ratio in special education is now greater than the overall student-to-teacher ratio, suggesting that SWDs spend more time with general educators than with special educators. Even SWDs with the most significant needs, such as students with intellectual disabilities or autism, are often instructed by teachers without special-education certification. Since general educators are largely responsible for teaching SWDs, it is critical that we understand their role in teaching all students if we hope to improve outcomes for all.
An Ecological Perspective
Overall, what is known about inclusion from research is quite limited in the context of such a widespread practice. SWDs appear to have better outcomes when educated in inclusive settings, yet studies of the association between setting and outcomes do not account for important differences between the SWDs placed in inclusive classrooms and those who are taught in special-education settings. Students without disabilities have lower academic and behavioral outcomes when they are taught in classrooms that include SWDs, particularly students with an EBD. General-education teachers may welcome SWDs into their classrooms, but they spend more time on classroom management and less on instruction and are more likely to leave teaching when SWDs are present. This limited body of correlational research may not provide many conclusions about inclusion, but it does suggest a framework for future research and policy decisions.

In particular, this research highlights the importance of evaluating inclusion from an ecological perspective. Instead of focusing narrowly on the effects of inclusion on outcomes for SWDs, an ecological perspective would acknowledge that inclusion influences SWDs, their peers without disabilities, and general-education teachers, and should focus on the interactions between and among these three groups. SWDs may influence their peers, but this relationship likely goes both ways. If peer behavior changes in response to the inclusion of SWDs in the classroom, these changes likely influence teacher behavior. Without understanding how inclusion influences all three groups and the complex interactions among them, inclusion is unlikely to be successful for all those involved. The small body of literature that currently exists tends to examine the experiences of SWDs, their peers, and their teachers separately. Moving forward, researchers should focus more holistically on the classroom ecosystem in order to identify the conditions and supports necessary for inclusion to improve outcomes for all students. The results of these studies could be used to develop interventions that support teachers who work with SWDs in inclusive settings, to determine effective service-delivery models that enable all students to access the general curriculum, and to investigate ways that students of different ability levels can benefit from each other.

But considering inclusion from an ecological perspective is problematic in the context of current policy guidance and special-education case law. IDEA emphasizes the importance of making placement decisions based on the needs of an individual student, not the implications of the decision for their classmates or teachers. In its 2017 decision in Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District, the Supreme Court established a higher standard for determining the "educational benefit" a student is entitled to receive under IDEA. The new standard emphasizes the "unique circumstances" of the individual student, and it is likely that these "circumstances" could include the available teachers and the student's classmates. For example, parents and school personnel deciding on where a student should receive individualized reading instruction may weigh the ability of the general-education teacher to provide this instruction in her classroom against the ability of a specially trained teacher to provide it in a pullout setting. IEP team deliberations might also include frank discussions of teachers' skills at meeting the needs of all students in a classroom. Considering such factors means acknowledging the unique circumstances and constraints within a school and the reality that the education of SWDs is not context-free. In fact, a study I conducted with Gary Henry suggests that schools may already be making decisions about how best to educate SWDs based on the available resources in a school. We find that students with autism and intellectual disabilities are more likely to be grouped with other students with similar disabilities in smaller classes taught by special education-certified teachers. The legality of taking this ecological approach to placement decisions is questionable under current federal policy and requires clarification when Congress next revises IDEA.

In the meantime, policymakers and school personnel should keep in mind the limited evidence base suggesting that placing an SWD in a general-education classroom will result in the student making progress in the general-education curriculum. Special education is an amalgam of services, not a place. IDEA requires that SWDs receive educational services based on their individual needs. This means that decisions about where a student is educated should not be dictated by school, district, or state bureaucratic goals related to the percentage of SWDs that "should" be included in the general-education classroom for a fixed amount of time each day. Instead, decisions regarding placement in a general-education classroom, special-education classroom, or a mixture of settings should be determined by students' individual needs. If a student is not making progress in an educational setting, the student is not accessing the curriculum. Oftentimes, students may need intensive and individualized instruction to make progress and gain access to the general-education curriculum. This level of instruction might not be possible if a student is taught exclusively in a general-education setting.

On a related note, policymakers should stop using location or setting as an indicator of access. Increasing the numbers of SWDs in regular classrooms does not necessarily result in improving their academic outcomes, and may unintentionally affect non-disabled peers and general-education teachers. When the numbers of SWDs in inclusive classrooms rises without a concomitant increase in their achievement, it could mean that schools are failing to make individualized decisions regarding placement. This conflicts with IDEA's mandate and will not result in better outcomes for students.

Special education in the United States has long focused on improving SWDs' access to neighborhood schools, general-education classrooms, and the general-education curriculum. Policies and practices have increasingly veered toward inclusion. However, these policies, and the research on their effects, have narrowly focused on SWDs' outcomes without considering the confluence of factors that can affect a classroom. With inclusion as the dominant model in special education, it is imperative that researchers also focus on whether and how these students influence the experiences of their peers and their teachers in order to make schools effective for all children.
Allison F. Gilmour is assistant professor of special education at Temple University.

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Weighing its effects on students with disabilities, their peers, and teachers

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Australian Council for Educational Research - ACER

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Using Teacher to support your professional practice

Our annual reader survey has just concluded for another year, and we're already acting on your feedback and suggestions. In this article, we share how some of you are using Teacher to support your practice.

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Using Teacher to support your professional practice Our annual reader survey has just concluded for another year, and we're already acting on your feedback and suggestions. In this article, we share how some of you are using Teacher to support your practice.

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ted ted-ed teded "ted education" animation "animated videos" history math science myths riddles literature poetry psychology education "mental health" health...

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TED-Ed's mission is to create lessons worth sharing. Feed and expand your curiosity with our award-winning animated shorts - published on YouTube and available with supplemental learning materials on ed.ted.com. Want to suggest an idea for a TED-Ed animation, nominate an educator or animator? Visit our website at: http://ed.ted.com/get_involved.

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The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE®) is the premier membership association for educators and education leaders engaged in improving learning and teaching by advancing the effective use of technology in PK--12 and teacher education. ISTE represents more than 100,000 educatio…

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Having a bit of trouble understanding technology ? watch these

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Education technology and general education

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biology "ap biology" education bozeman montana "paul andersen"

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Paul Andersen is an educational consultant and YouTube creator living in Bozeman, MT. Paul is an experienced educator having taught science in Montana for 20 years. Paul was the 2011 Montana Teacher of the Year, and was also one of four finalists for the 2011 National Teacher of the Year.

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Since launching on March 6, 2007, our goal at TeacherTube has been to provide an online community for sharing instructional and education videos for college students, high school students, middle school students and elementary school students. We seek to fill a need for a more educationally focused, safe venue for teachers, students, schools, and home learners. It is a site to provide anytime, anywhere professional development with teachers teaching teachers. It is also a site where teachers can post videos designed for students to view in order to learn a concept or skill.

On September 1, 2017, TeacherTube.com was acquired by Salem Web Network. Salem's goal is to continue the growth of TeacherTube and support innovative ideas for education.

Most importantly, TeacherTube community members are a major part of the evolution of the site. Members are encouraged to not only upload educationally relevant videos but also to make constructive comments and use the rating system to show appreciation for videos of value to one as an educator or learner. Users also have the ability to preserve the integrity of the site by flagging inappropriate videos. TeacherTube staff review flagged sites and will remove any inappropriate posts. With more collegial commentary and discussion through messaging and responses, the quality of this resource will only increase.

The service is free for everyone. We always encourage our users to Contact Us with thoughts, suggestions, or other feedback. We do have a vision for TeacherTube to truly be a better alternative to other video storage sites. With the community's help, it can become more interactive and engaging for all teachers and learners.

Science videos are one of the key subjects that students are taught in school. Science is present from the early years of grade school up to the highest levels of academic achievement. As students move up the ranks, their study of science tends to get more specialized into one specific field only, like chemistry, biology, or physics. We have educational videos for all of these courses.

TeacherTube.com's section on science educational videos has content of interest to all learning levels. We have topics as varied as educational songs for elementary school students, up to chemical engineering for college students.

Mathematics is one of the fundamental 3Rs of early education. Known as "arithmetic" in those levels, it involves counting and the basic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. As kids advance through the grade levels, they progressively deal with more complex mathematical problems. Also, more new concepts get introduced as they progress.

Math is crucial for almost any business career. Accounting, budgeting, and projecting sales all require some level of competence in math. Many resources for these topics can be found here on TeacherTube.

Even everyday situations benefit a lot from math skills. Managing one's finances, for instance, obviously requires math, as with anything involving money. Cooking also involves math: proportions of ingredients, for example, as well as measurements.

TeacherTube.com's section on math education videos covers everything from fractions and measurements to money management. We also cover more complicated subjects such as trigonometry, and well as probability and statistics.

History is a very valuable subject, but not just because it is useful for preventing future wars. The lessons from history can also teach people to build a better future. What people have done right in the past should be continued and improved upon in the present.

The subject of history covers a wide range of timelines and locations. There's ancient history and modern history. There is also Asian history, US history, Latin American history, and European history. Each one is unique, reflecting the cultures of the people involved.

If there's one thing common to all history classes, it's usually names, dates, and places. This is also the part that many kids hate the most. They do not see the point of memorizing so many random facts that appear purposeless. Well, that is the wrong way to teach history.

TeacherTube's history education videos section makes the past come alive with a sterling array of videos and tutorials that cover subjects as varied as our prehistory, ancient history, the civil war, and the study of world civilizations.

The purpose of social studies, based on the US National Council for the Social Studies, is to promote "civic competence" among students. In other words, the subject equips students to become better citizens of a country. This is done by exploring history, geography, current events, and governments, among others. Middle school social studies usually deal with one of each of these fields per grade level.

With this knowledge, students gain the ability to become more socially aware and to be actively involved citizens of their country. Through analyzing current events, students will also learn how to predict the consequences of the things happening around them. With that, they can be good influences on their communities.

It is with this goal in mind that TeacherTube offers a wide variety of learning video materials for both students and enthusiasts.

We have videos on everything from strengthening your knowledge of economics terminology to the nuances of various world cultures.

Language arts, as the name suggests, equips students with a wide range of ways to use language. It comprises both speaking and writing skills. In addition to the basics, the subject also deals with the artistic side of language, infusing creativity in the ways students communicate.

There are four basic aspects to understanding a language: speaking, reading, listening, and writing. Language arts classes aim to enhance those skills at each year level. At first, it covers basic topics like grammar, sentence construction, and paragraphs. Exercises in language arts become progressively more complex as students move up the ranks, and usually, in higher grades, more emphasis is put on creativity and persuasiveness.

With the noble goal of harnessing the power of words to effect change in the world in mind, TeacherTube is proud to offer videos on everything from general communications to speaking and even videos on strengthening your studying skills.

Not all kids want to go through lectures. Some of them may not have the attention span or the patience to endure long hours just sitting down and listening to someone talk in front. No, that doesn't mean these kids are lazy. It just means they learn differently.

Some kids are auditory learners. In other words, they learn best when they listen to sounds and music. For this type of student, educational songs will certainly be a big helping hand. Even the most complex of concepts, when taught through songs, will be very easy for them to understand and remember. Even kids who are not so much inclined to auditory learning may like this method.

Educational song vidoes are available in a wide variety of subjects. English, math, social studies, science, and everything in between, there's bound to be a song for every subject. For example, on the website Teachertube.com, there are science topic songs, reading songs, skip counting songs, reading phonics songs, and even quadratic formula songs.

The advantage of using educational song videos is that it accomplishes two things at once. First, these songs are entertaining, and second, they also teach a concept. They facilitate learning a lot better than plain lectures simply because of the entertainment part. When a lesson is made fun of, kids will want to learn them. In fact, it could even be the kids themselves, on their own, who will play the songs repeatedly.

TeacherTube offers education songs on topics as varied as the circulatory system to math songs about polynomials and even videos on St. Patrick's Day.

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TeacherTube Educational Videos for the School Classroom and Home - Including Educational Songs, History Videos, Student Videos and Math Videos

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A free community for sharing instructional videos, Educational Songs, History Videos, Student Videos, Math Videos, and other content for teachers and students. We are an education focused, safe venue for teachers, schools, and home schoolers to access educational for the classroom and home learning.

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Stay connected with your classes with free two-way messaging

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Seesaw | Elementary Learning Experience Platform

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Seesaw | Elementary Learning Experience Platform

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Elementary Learning Experience Platform | Seesaw

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Seesaw is a Learning Experience Platform with 25M+ users, enhancing elementary education, engagement, and school culture while improving academic success.

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ClassDojo helps teachers, parents, and students build amazing classroom communities.

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More fun podcasts

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Hello!

I have a treat for you.

Last year, a completely lovely reader offered to do a write-up of how she teaches her students to podcast. I don't typically post about curriculum/pedagogy (I'm more interested in telling you why I'll die alone), but this opportunity seemed too good to pass up-especially since I didn't have to write it! Ha. Anyway, at a time of year when so many teachers are about to start pulling their hair out from research papers, I thought this was a great alternative-or an assignment to do concurrently with whatever it is that you're cramming to get in before June.

Here's Tricia, spreading her knowledge like whipped cream cheese icing:

The Wonderful World of Podcasting!

By Tricia Maniaci

They know. And it's not because they read the syllabus or course schedule. It is inevitable. We've written narratives, interviews, observations, and rhetorical analysis. It was only a matter of time.

The most dreaded of papers for students to write, and equally painful for teachers to read: the research paper.

We could speculate the whys (and there are many), but the one I keep coming back to is simple: It's the last (ish) assignment of the semester and we are all tired; they are tired of writing papers and I am tired of reading them. We educators tend to save the worst for last. Clearly we dread this as much as our students; otherwise we'd be bouncing around the room the first day like a certain celebrity offering up free cars: WE ARE DOING RESEARCH PAPERS!!!! YOU GET A RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT! AND YOU GET A RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT!

One of the ongoing movements within Higher Ed (and probably elsewhere, but Higher Ed is my circus) is making the classroom and assignments more multimodal. I'm no Luddite, but my first response to that phrasing was similar to Reese Witherspoon's reaction in Legally Blonde regarding Harvard Admissions, "What, like a fancy Power Point?" Look, I grew up in an era of actual cards in a card catalogue. I was the tech guru in my family because I could program the VCR. My generation invented the plethora of excuses surrounding email and late assignments, because email was new. So to put me in front of a smart board, hand me an iPad, and tell me to make things more multimodal, I will see your technology and raise you a shrug and a vocal, "Meh."

I teach English Comp. English Comp = Writing. Writing = Paper. Yes, the means by which we've written has changed slightly, from the quill to the pen to the typewriter to the laptop, but when it comes down to it, there's not much in the way of multimodal writing. Essays are still essays. Where multimodal fits into this equation was beyond me (I was never great at math.)

Sometimes it's hard to see the forest through the trees, especially if you teach the same thing semester after semester. So why would it occur to me the elements of a research paper are transferable when it comes to podcasts? Or documentaries? It wouldn't.

Until I started binge listening Aaron Mahnke's Lore. There it was, in one simple sentence, "Research assistance from Marcet Crockett." My brain slowed, the car slowed (sorry, mom and her 4 kids in the van behind me). Research. Assistance. Research.

REEEEEESEAAAAARCHHHHHHHH.

WHY AM I NOT DOING THIS?!

Podcasts are, in essence, a research paper. They are MULT. MODAL.

Expletives flew from my mouth (also from the van behind me) and I called a colleague of mine to share with her my best idea ever. Instead of having my students write another paper, with the added element of painful research, I'd have them create a podcast!

The great thing about using podcasts in addition to essay writing is they literally contain every element of an essay. The process by which to create a well developed, carefully researched, and organized podcast is the same process by which a research paper is developed.

I still require my students to submit a number of written pieces surrounding the project:

Detailed outline (this particular one is from my Folklore specific assignment)

Annotated bibliography

Script (Essentially, an essay. But script is more magical sounding. As if the Justice League would suddenly burst through the wall volunteering their superpowers to defeat the evil professor.)

Self-reflection

I should note I use the term "script" loosely. I have my students listen and evaluate a number of podcasts and we discuss the differences between them. Some such as LORE are very scripted, while others such as My Favorite Murder, are very conversational. I do point out even with the more conversational podcasts, there is still an outline and producer keeping the presenters on track. So if a student chooses not to write a script, I make sure his or her outline is extremely detailed.

When I introduce this particular project, I have them listen to Lore or Unexplained. Besides involving a historical element (can we say cross curricular?!), they are also short (around half an hour). Because I teach college students, I am not limited to content, though I still vet episodes and provide trigger warnings.

The other great thing about doing podcasts is it's extremely accessible. I've had a number of students with a varying range of abilities participate. It's adaptable. Students can do a research project or a personal narrative, or an interview. It can be as high tech or as low tech as you or the creator wants. One of the best submissions I received was recorded with a phone, in the shower of a student's bathroom (the flushing toilet was a bonus laugh).

Since implementing this project with my students, I've noticed they become more invested with the writing process. They enjoy creating and writing, and I enjoy steering them in just one more direction that requires research and writing. And I don't have to grade a stack of apathetically written research essays.

Hopefully the resources below will help lead you and your students away from the monotony of the traditional research paper. Know this isn't a substitution, but an addition. I still firmly believe students need to know about writing and analyzing information, but this is one way to shake things up and give us all a much needed break.

Research

Urban Legends, Ghost Stories, and Folklore, OH MY!, This is the assignment I give to my Comp 1 students. We listen to Lore and Unexplained as a model.

Webster University International Project, This is from a colleague who teaches Mass Communications, so it focuses a lot on the technical aspect, but provides some great project ideas and curriculum plans. You can also see how I adapted my lesson plan from theirs.

Narrative:

Modern Love and Narrative Writing, I stumbled across this gem on the New York Times Lesson Plans website.

Project Audio: The whole kit and caboodle complete with lesson plans, and curriculum guidelines. Another resource from The New York Times, this covers everything from project ideas, recording apps, editing, and production.
Rubric
Podcast Rubric, The University of Wisconsin - Stout has this up on their website and I love it. Mostly because I hate writing rubrics.
Podcasts
Please note some of these podcasts may not be appropriate for all age levels, so vet accordingly. This is not an exhaustive list, just some of my favorites.

Lore, Historical, well researched, often touching, and a little spooky at times. This podcast covers a number of historical events and the folklore surrounding them. It would serve well for any kind of across the curriculum planning. If at any point you cover the Salem Witch Trials or Witch Hunts, I recommend Episode 70.

Unexplained, Like Lore, it's historical in nature, but discusses the more unexplained phenomena such as aliens, poltergeists, and ghosts.

Ear Hustle, This is the perfect podcast for discussing civil rights and the prison system. Strong language at times, and can be graphic.

Cooked Conversations, A podcast that discusses recent political and social events happening, but may not get a lot of media coverage; this would be the perfect edition to a Civics or History class. Strong language and a bit controversial for some, but well worth the listen.

Reveal, Much like Crooked Conversations, Reveal is an investigative podcast that tackles social and political issues.

Story Corps, Probably one of my favorites when having my students conduct interviews. The even provide questions and interviewing tips for prospective submissions.

The Moth, When teaching narrative writing, this podcast is my go to.

Write Now, This handy podcast discusses the writing process. My students love listening to the writer interviews; it helps them see writers at any level struggle with procrastination, writer's block, and motivation.

I hope you enjoyed Tricia's abundance of linked resources, her Legally Blonde reference, and her project that will, with any luck, save you from an absolute mountain of sad research papers to grade.

And if you want real-life whipped cream cheese icing to enjoy, here's a recipe for carrot cake I made this week that absolutely SLAYED. Here's a picture of it, too.

Love,

Teach (Kelly)

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Hello! I have a treat for you. Last year, a completely lovely reader offered to do a write-up of how she teaches her students to podcast. I don't typically post about curriculum/pedagogy (I'm more interested in telling you why I'll die alone), but this opportunity seemed too good to pass up-especially since I didn't have to write it!

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Raising Rock Stars Preschool ~ I developed this Bible based printable preschool program for my son and now share it with others! The base program is free, I offer a download bundle here , and additional that go along with the units in the Members Only PowerPoint section. PowerPoint shows

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For many of us- it's testing season! While we may not enjoy it, it's the reality of school life in many states. There are many ways to review for the large-scale tests with which many of us will be faced in the coming weeks; however, test preparation does not have to be boring. In fact, almost any review can be turned into something fun. With this in mind, in today's post, I'm sharing one of my favorite math review games.

The game I want to share with you is a personal favorite! It's also super simple and just plain fun! Most importantly, my students love it! All you need is a set of questions to ask and a set of buzzers (one buzzer per team).

For buzzers, I love using something called an Eggspert (see the picture above). You can find it on Amazon. It's a set of six connected and colorful buzzers. Note: You can also use battery-operated closet touch lights which can be found at any home improvement store.

How It Works

1. Divide the class into six equal groups. Assign each student in each group a number, such as 1 - 6. Place the buzzers at the front of the room.

2. Read a question card. Then, give students time to solve the problem with a dry-erase board or scratch paper. Note: All students must attempt to answer the question or the team is unable to buzz-in.

3. Randomly select a number. The student who was assigned this number in each group comes up to have a chance to buzz-in.

4. Reread the question. Allow students to buzz-in. The first student to buzz-in and answer the question correctly, using his or her own work, earns a point for his/her group.

Variation

Eggspert has an awesome feature which randomly selects a student to respond. Once selected, students then have an opportunity to explain his/her solution using the work completed during the work time.

More Math Review Games

Looking for more math review games? Check out my "Math Test Prep and Review Strategies" Pinterest board. In addition, be sure to check out "6 Tips for a Successful Math Review" for ways to create a stellar review during this testing season and about of my favorite review strategies here.

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Math Review Games: Fun with Buzzers | The Routty Math Teacher

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For many of us- it's testing season! While we may not enjoy it, it's the reality of school life in many states. There are many ways to review for the large-scale tests with which many of us will be faced in the coming weeks; however, test preparation does not have to be boring.

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I feel your pain.

You are in your classroom. It is time for writing. Kids groan. You feel defeated.
You pretend you don't hear it because secretly you are wondering, "Was that actually the kids groaning or did I accidentally expose my true feelings about our writing block and let the groan in my head slip out?"
You act casual...chipper even. You start the lesson. You feel OK about it.
You set them free to draft the next great American novel.
Or perhaps since this is elementary school, you just want to get a decent paragraph out of them.
Heads go down.
Bodies slump.
Then it happens. Some pencils start to move. You feel a flicker of hope...until you realize they are doodling.
Ultimately paragraphs get produced, but the quality is disappointing.
Like I said, I feel your pain. I was there. I was there for many years actually.
But friends, like all great American novels, this tale has a happy ending.

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Haunted House for Sale Writing Project and Craft Ideas

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I feel your pain. You are in your classroom. It is time for writing. Kids groan. You feel defeated. You pretend you don't hear it because secretly you are wondering, "Was that actually the kids groaning or did I accidentally expose my true feelings about our writing block and let the groan in my head slip out?"

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Literature Circles

Join this free 6 part audio training and discover how to fully engage your students in their reading through differentiation, student voice, and clear student roles.

Personal Inquiry

Looking to teach the inquiry process in your classroom? Maybe beef up your already great lesson? These 11 free anchor chart posters will help you guide the inquiry process with ease!

I'm Angela. I teach fourth grade in British Columbia, Canada. I inspire time-strapped teachers to better reach all learners through clear, comprehensive, and hands-on lessons for maximum student engagement.

This means that teachers can spend more of their valuable time on other aspects of their lives. My resources help teachers just like you tackle content areas with complete, easy-to-use, low-prep units.

Through inquiry-based approaches, hands-on learning experiences, and collaboration, teachers and students can go deeper with the curriculum.

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Join this free 6 part audio training and discover how to fully engage your students in their reading through differentiation, student voice, and clear student roles. Looking to teach the inquiry process in your classroom? Maybe beef up your already great lesson? These 11 free anchor chart posters will help you guide the inquiry process with ease!

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3rd Grade Thoughts: A teaching blog by Stephanie Van Horn

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Ideas and resources for early elementary teachers - First grade printables - classroom organization tips - classroom management tips -

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I'm the teacher who founded The Kindergarten Connection (TKC)!

As a playful learning enthusiast I help teachers find joy in the busy day to day of their early childhood classrooms.

Through The Kindergarten Connection, over 200,000 teachers collaborate together from all around the world! I'm constantly inspired by all of these amazing teachers and I love helping them gain confidence as educators through social media, courses, classroom resources, and our teacher membership.

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Connecting with early childhood educators worldwide to help create playful classrooms There are a lot of resources available to you. From free downloads, to craft ideas, to paid bundles of printables, it might seem overwhelming. That's why we created these curated Collections! Our mission is to spark joy in early childhood educators and to help...

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Abc are important help your student!

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For upper level grades!

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history biology literature learning education science humanities school "world history" ap tests smart fun chemistry psychology apush whap study "crash cours...

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At Crash Course, we believe that high-quality educational videos should be available to everyone for free! Subscribe for weekly videos from our current courses! The Crash Course team has produced more than 45 courses on a wide variety of subjects, including organic chemistry, literature, world history, biology, philosophy, theater, ecology, and many more!

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Help students type

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The highest quality free courses through the most awesome learning platform.

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Algebra calculator!

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Examples: 1+2, 1/3+1/4, 2^3 * 2^2
(x+1)(x+2) (Simplify Example), 2x^2+2y @ x=5, y=3 (Evaluate Example)
y=x^2+1 (Graph Example), 4x+2=2(x+6) (Solve Example)

Algebra Calculator is a calculator that gives step-by-step help on algebra problems.

See More Examples "

Disclaimer: This calculator is not perfect. Please use at your own risk, and please alert us if something isn't working. Thank you.

How to Use the Calculator

Type your algebra problem into the text box.

For example, enter 3x+2=14 into the text box to get a step-by-step explanation of how to solve 3x+2=14.

More Examples

Trying the examples on the Examples page is the quickest way to learn how to use the calculator.

Math Symbols

If you would like to create your own math expressions, here are some symbols that the calculator understands:

Tutorial

Read the full tutorial to learn how to graph equations and check your algebra homework.

Mobile App

Get the MathPapa mobile app! It works offline!

Feedback (For students 13+)

Please use this feedback form to send your feedback. Thanks!

Need more practice problems? Try MathPapa Math Practice

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Algebra Calculator shows you the step-by-step solutions! Solves algebra problems and walks you through them.

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Fun way to learn

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learning games!

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Available on
Step-by-Step Learning Path

"Love the progressive activities! I don't have to take the time to search for activities for my 3-year-old, and my 5-year-old just follows along when she's playing by herself... So I know everyone's doing the right things for their ages!" -Crystal, mother of 3- and 5-year-old girls
computers, tablets, and smartphones!

The Reading Curriculum Includes:

Uppercase and lowercase letter recognition

Phonics

Rhyming words and word families

More than 450 books and beginning readers

Sentence structure

Parts of speech

ABCmouse.com's reading curriculum spans the entire range of early reading, from learning the names of each letter and the sounds they represent to being able to read books, starting with a few words on a page and gradually advancing to paragraphs.

The curriculum for first grade also includes writing and language skills, such as sentence structure and punctuation, parts of speech, and practice with writing genres.

ABCmouse.com's reading curriculum spans the entire range of early reading, from learning the names of each letter and the sounds they represent to being able to read books, starting with a few words on a page and gradually advancing to paragraphs.

The curriculum for first grade also includes writing and language skills, such as sentence structure and punctuation, parts of speech, and practice with writing genres.

The Math Curriculum Includes:

Recognizing and counting numbers 1-120

The base ten system

Place value

Addition and subtraction

Names and attributes of 2D and 3D shapes

Length, time, and money measurement

The Math Curriculum Includes:

Recognizing and counting numbers 1-120

The base ten system

Place value

Addition and subtraction

Names and attributes of 2D and 3D shapes

Length, time, and money measurement

ABCmouse.com teaches numbers, addition and subtraction, shapes, patterns, measurements, and more! Our games and creative activities make math fun while giving young learners the practice they need to build a strong foundation for success.

The Science and Social Studies Curriculum Includes:

The body and health

Plants and animals

Weather, climate, and the seasons

Earth's environments

Maps

Regions of the United States

The Solar System

Matter and its properties

Science and Social Studies

ABCmouse.com's science and social studies curriculum helps children understand the world they live in and inspires curiosity.

Science and Social Studies

ABCmouse.com's science and social studies curriculum helps children understand the world they live in and inspires curiosity.

The Art & Colors Curriculum Includes:

Primary and secondary colors

Shades of colors

Paint-by-number activities

Number and letter dot-to-dots

The Art & Colors Curriculum Includes:

Primary and secondary colors

Shades of colors

Paint-by-number activities

Number and letter dot-to-dots

ABCmouse.com's unique drawing and painting program gives children of all ages the opportunity to use lines, shapes, and colors to create original works of art. Games, books, paint-by-number activities, and puzzles teach children to name and use a variety of colors.

"My daughter loves this site! She has learned so much more than I thought she could learn at her age. ABC's are her favorite things to do, and since I started her on this website she has learned to read words well above her age level." -Morgyn, mother of a 2-year-old girl

"My child absolutely loves everything about this site, and I see improvement in her counting and color association already. I think this site is fantastic." -Father of a 3-year-old girl

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Available on Step-by-Step Learning Path "Love the progressive activities! I don't have to take the time to search for activities for my 3-year-old, and my 5-year-old just follows along when she's playing by herself... So I know everyone's doing the right things for their ages!"

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Great strategies!

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This post contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience. Any purchases made through one of our links earn us a small commission, at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. All creative ideas and opinions expressed are purely my own. Read our full privacy policy and disclosure for more information.
As a teacher, you continually try to keep your students engaged and on-task. This list of classroom management strategies can help you accomplish this goal! Your classroom management strategy will encourage students to follow your classroom rules and behaviors, all while helping to keep them engaged and learning.
The Ultimate List of Classroom Management Strategies:

Tips from Dedicated Teachers

There are so many classroom management strategies out there, you simply need to know where to look. This list of classroom management strategies helps you get started as you develop a strategy that works for you and for your class. I interviewed over 300 teachers to find out their favorite tips and tricks for classroom management, and these are a huge chunk of their ideas. Here are some strategies you can start using right away, from games to prizes. And the best part about them is that they are all POSITIVE methods - perfect for positive classroom management.

List of Classroom Management Strategies for Whole Class or Small Groups

Small groups are great for classroom management. Not only do students enjoy working together in small groups, you also get the chance to observe students more closely. Whether it's for learning centers or a classroom lesson, this list of classroom management strategies can help you manage your small groups.

1. Class Meetings - Hosting a class meeting is the perfect way to start the school day, because it is an informal and unintimidating way to get important points across to students. The conversational style of a class meeting lends itself to open communication and supportive, encouraging talks about expected behavior and rewards/consequences.

2. Team Points - When your classroom is set up in small groups, give each group a chance to earn points when they complete an activity or exhibit a positive behavior. Your small groups will work hard to earn those points!

3. Table Wars - Similar to Team Points (above), use a little friendly competition to help manage your classroom. When your students are working in small groups, have them compete against one another, earning points for teamwork, staying focused, cleaning up supplies and more.

4. Team Names - Another great way to manage your small groups is to give your students a way to take ownership of those groups. Let them work together to come up with a team name.

Visual Classroom Management Strategies

When a student can see how they're doing, they're very likely to continue the positive behavior or to change the unwanted behavior. Visuals are perfect for this. Whether it's a clip on a chart, a color-coded card, or a countdown clock for an activity, visuals give students the opportunity to gauge their behavior at a glance and make positive adjustments.

1. Class Dojo - Class Dojo is an online student behavior tracker that is perfect for classroom management. You can display Class Dojo on your smart board, using it to give students rewards and tokens. You can even use it to communicate with parents!

2. Sticker Charts - Sticker charts also help students visually gauge their behavior. Students will love working towards a prize or goal as they fill up their sticker charts.

3. Yacker Tracker - When students are working in small groups, you can use a yacker tracker to show students if their voice levels are appropriate. A red light would warn students to quiet down, while a green light will encourage them to continue their behaviors.

4. Color-coded Cards - Instead of using a clip chart, you can also use color cards to help students track their behavior. Students can flip their cards to a different color based on their behavior.

5. Behavior Punch Cards - While your students are working independently or in small groups, walk around with a fun-shaped hole punch and punch their behavior cards when you noticed positive behavior.

6. Gold Tags - When you notice a student following classroom rules or complete an activity, give them a gold tag. Gold tags can be exchanged for a classroom prize at the end of the day or week.

7. Countdown Clock - If students know when to expect an activity to end, they can make sure they complete all of their learning goals before the time is up. That's why a countdown clock is perfect for your classroom.

8. Fill A Jar - Every time an individual student, table group, or the whole class does something positive, you can add an item to your jar. It can be anything, from pom-poms to rocks or marbles.

Verbal Classroom Management Strategies

Your voice is a powerful tool when it comes to classroom management. This list of classroom management strategies focuses on verbal cues and transitions you can use to keep your students organized and ready.

1. Callbacks - Callbacks are a great way for you to get your students' attention and give them instructions for the next activity. Callbacks can be anything, from saying "Class, class" and having your students answer back with "yes, yes" to saying "1-2-3, eyes on me." Find a callback that works for your class and make the most of it!

2. Shushing Pattern - Words aren't the only thing you can use to get your students' attention. You can also make a shushing pattern and have your students shush it back to you.

3. Classroom Transition Songs - When it's time to move on to the next thing, get students moving with a transition song. You can come up with your own transition song or chant, or you can easily find a class favorite online.

4. Line Up Chants - A chant can also be used to get your students lined up for leaving the classroom. Not only will this get students in line faster, eliminating long transition times, it will also keep them focused and on good behavior as you take them into the hallway.

Non-Verbal Classroom Management Strategies

There are also plenty of non-verbal ways for you to keep your classroom under control. This list of classroom management strategies gives you a way to keep your students on task and learning.

1. Raise Your Hand - If it's time for your students to transition to another activity or to simply work more quietly, then simply raise your hand and wait for students to quiet down and raise their own hands.

2. Sign Language - When you're in the middle of an engaging lesson, the last thing you want to do is stop teaching the whole class to tell a student that they can grab a kleenex. That's why sign language can be such an important classroom management strategy. Teach students simple signs such as bathroom, tissue, sit, stand, or I have a question. This will eliminate plenty of interruptions!

3. Routines - Kids thrive on routine, which is why you should make routines a part of your classroom management strategy. Decide what works best for your class and use that throughout the year, remaining consistent with routines and expectations.

4. Proximity - If you have a student that is not on task, it's amazing how focused they can become as soon as you walk near them. Use your proximity to help manage students, encouraging them to be well-behaved and on task.

Classroom Management Games

Games are a great way to get students excited to learn! You can use these classroom management games to help encourage the behaviors you want and discourage the behaviors you don't want.

1. Porky the Pig Classroom Blurters - When you have a student that blurts, it's time to play the Porky the Pig game! Have a pig mounted on your whiteboard, along with a collection of coins attached to magnets. When a student blurts, they have to put a coin in Porky's mouth. At the end of the week, if Porky has collected too many coins, the class does not earn a reward. If they meat their goal, then the whole class can enjoy something fun.

2. Candy Land Behavior Game - Mount a candy land board for your class to see. Each student gets 5 moves a day, but can earn extra moves forward or backward based on behavior.

3. Kindness Chain - Challenge your class to build a kindness chain. Each time your students are kind or follow classroom expectations, they can fill out a paper link and add it to the chain. Once you reach a certain number of links or length, the whole class can earn a reward!

4. Brownie Points - Give your students a chance to earn brownie points! These points can be displayed on a baking sheet at the front of the room so that they can see how close they are to earning their classroom prize. The reward could be a brownie dessert!

5. Classroom Puzzle - Mount magnets to the back of each puzzle piece and then give your students a chance to earn those puzzle pieces throughout the day. At the end of the day or week, students can put the puzzle together on the dry erase board, displaying a beautiful picture that represents their classroom behavior.

Brain Breaks for Classroom Management

When students have been working hard on an intense lesson, a brain break can work wonders for your classroom management. Give students a constructive way to work out their energy, such as playing a moving game or fidgeting with a stress ball.

1. Go Noodle - Go Noodle is an online resource that is a must-have for any classroom. Simply play a fun video and watch as students dance, jiggle and wiggle their energy out. They'll be more prepared to learn after taking a Go Noodle Break

2. Fidget Toys - Some students need to fidget to help focus. Give students what they need by providing fidget toys, stress balls, or even notebooks to help keep them focused.

3. Calm Down Zone - Students also need a chance to calm down when they're upset or hyper. Create a safe zone for students to calm down, such as a corner of the room with a cozy chair. During a break, students can use this area to calm down and get focused until the next activity. Make a calm down kit with a few special items that a child can use when needed.

4. Brain Break Activities - Have a set of brain break cards ready with simple activities that kids can do easily and quickly when they need a break. Great for the whole class to get up and moving!

Prizes & Rewards for Classroom Management

You can use prizes and rewards to keep your students on their best behavior! In small groups or as a whole class, students can work towards a goal by demonstrating the desired classroom behavior. Here's a list of fun ways you can reward students for good behavior.

1. Prizes - Get some small prizes online or grab some items from a garage sale. Students will love earning little prizes.

2. Coupons - If you're looking for reward ideas that don't cost a thing, print off some coupons for students to earn. This can be anything, from picking their seat for the day or sitting by a friend.

3. Classroom Economy - Print some fake dollar bills and let students earn money to buy prizes. Not only is this a great classroom management skill, it also gives your students practice counting money, as well as spending it.

4. Raffles - You can also use raffle tickets for your classroom management strategy. Hand out tickets to students following directions and draw a few names at the end of the week. Whoever wins the raffle, will get a special prize.

5. Holiday-Themed Prizes - Students can be extra energetic before a holiday. Use that to your advantage and have a holiday-themed prize box. This can be anything, from a Boo Bucket for Halloween to a Pot of Gold for St. Patrick's Day.

6. Fun Friday - Another free prize your students can earn each week is Fun Friday. If students meet their class goal for behavior, you can save the last 20 minutes of class as their Fun Friday time. Students will be able to play educational board games, centers, iPad apps and more!

Parent Communication

Parent communication is an important piece of your classroom management strategy. Enlist parents' assistance by keeping them informed of their child's behavior, both positive and negative.

1. Positive Notes Home - When a student does an exceptional job, make sure you send a positive note home. This will endear yourself to the child's parents, letting them know that you love and care for their child. This will also make it easier to talk to the parents if you start to notice negative behavior.

2. Daily Folders - Use daily folders to communicate with parents. Each day, write a note to parents with the behaviors you've noticed, including both the good and the bad. Parents can also write back to you, keeping you informed of any personal issues that you should be aware of.

3. Thinking Sheet - When a student has displayed negative behavior multiple times, it's time to do a little bit of thinking. Send home a thinking sheet with the student, giving them a chance to reflect on what went wrong for the day. This will also make the parents' aware of any issues you've noticed.

A strong classroom management strategy is important for your students and for you, which is why this list of ideas is vital. Not only will classroom management help keep your students behaving, it will also keep them on-task and learning, a goal every teacher has!

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The Ultimate Classroom Management Toolkit

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The Ultimate List of Classroom Management Strategies

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This post contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience. Any purchases made through one of our links earn us a small commission, at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. All creative ideas and opinions expressed are purely my own.

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Fun incentive for when you're away!

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Grab these FREE sub tickets to use as a motivator for student behavior when you are away.

This is one of my favorite sub plans must haves! I ALWAYS leave four sub tickets for when I am away for an extra incentive for students. They try so hard to earn one of these and they hold on to these like gold!

These are NOT editable. Please remember to leave feedback!

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Sub Tickets: Classroom Management for when you are Away

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Grab these FREE sub tickets to use as a motivator for student behavior when you are away. This is one of my favorite sub plans must haves! I ALWAYS leave four sub tickets for when I am away for an extra incentive for students.

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need to teach your students about earth, space, etc..?

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All teachers have their favorite go-to methods for teaching vocabulary words to their students. It may be the use of word walls, flashcards, analyzing the root word, or simply the repetition of writing down the word over and over.

Interactive VocAPPulary™ is a simple, yet effective way for students to learn vocabulary on a specific topic! What is unique about Interactive VocAPPulary™ is that it combines the use of illustration, word walls, and flashcards in a trendy, student-friendly package.

Creating drawings for each vocabulary word is not only creative fun, but it also allows students to create a visual that they can reference when trying to memorize a new word or concept. The innovative process of coming up with an image that represents the word, will further ingrain that concept into the student's mind.

Flashcards have been around forever! That's because they work! They are so effective because they utilize active recall. The repetitive process of actively trying to remember a definition allows information to move from short term memory to long term memory. Eventually, you can close your eyes and picture the words without having to flip the flashcard over to view the definition or answer. Interactive VocAPPulary™ is, well, interactive! Students can flip the image up to reveal a definition. Each "Smartphone" contains essentially 16 flashcards on each unit!

Interactive VocAPPulary™ is essentially a hand-held word wall! Students can group that information together, decorating their Smartphones and viewing the images and vocabulary words together. It takes the fun concept of Smartphones and has students designing their own unique apps. Each "Smartphone" has a theme or unit - such as "Ecosystems" -with 16 apps reflecting that theme.

Interactive VocAPPulary™ combines the very best strategies for learning vocabulary and presents them in a fun way your students will simply LOVE! They can put their Smartphones on a ring, combining the units for the entire year!

So far I have designed Earth Science VocAPPulary™, but there will be Follow many more units to come! StudentSavvy on TpT to receive updates for the next set of Interactive VocAPPulary!

If you have any requests, please visit my Q&A page on TpT.
Other features of VocAPPulary™:
-The bundle contains an EDITABLE file so you can edit all the text on the "Smartphone".

-Each unit file has an optional pre-illustrated (line art) version for students to color in if needed

-Each unit file has a sample projects (with an answer key) and instructions included.

Find Earth Science Interactive VocAPPulary™ here!
Vocabulary Builder - Interactive VocApp ulary™ Math Bundle Interactive VocAppulary
Make Your Own - Editable Templates

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The Best Teaching Tools for Learning Vocabulary! - Student Savvy

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All teachers have their favorite go-to methods for teaching vocabulary words to their students. It may be the use of word walls, flashcards, analyzing the root word, or simply the repetition of writing down the word over and over.

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Help your students recognize their name and numbers!

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Check out these fun spider activities for your preschool and pre-k classroom. These are perfect if you are teaching spiders theme unit or lesson plans.
My son and I have enjoyed using our magnetic spiders for several years. I recently got them out to use for decorations, games, and shenanigans, and thought I would share a few magnetic spider activities with you.

Spider Magnets

I think that my magnetic spiders were actually my first Pinterest inspired project. To make them, I hot glued small magnets to the back of inexpensive plastic spiders. Over the years we have had fun decorating our doors and refrigerator with the spiders. My son used to spend a little time at preschool each morning before his bus picked him up. One October he spent that time placing these little spiders all over the preschool. He had a blast.....but I can't say that my co-workers shared his enthusiasm for the creepy crawlies :).

In addition to using the creepy spiders to decorate or to scare people, you can also use them for learning activities with your kids. While all of these activities are perfect to use during the month of October, they would also be great additions to a study of nursery rhymes (Itsy Bitsy Spider or Little Miss Muffet) or bugs.

Spider Name Activities

Use the spiders on a magnetic board or cookie sheet and kids can practice recognizing the letters in their name.

Spider alphabet Activities

Draw a letter on paper or use letter collage sheets to work on individual letter recognition and phonemic awareness. Combine literacy and math by asking kids to count the number of spiders that fit inside the letter.

Spider Math Activities

You can also use the little spiders as fun counters for ten frame and other math activities. The spider math activity below can be found at my store, but you can also download a blank ten frame here.

Spider Emergent Reader

While we are talking about spiders, you can also get a copy of a cute spider emergent reader that I make. Learn more about the free printable emergent here.

Additional Spider Activities

I hope that you aren't too creeped out by all the spiders in this post, and I hope that you enjoy some of these activities with your kids. I have a few more articles here on the website featuring spider activities. Check out More Spider Activities and Spider Web Art Ideas.

Looking for additional spider activities for your kiddos? Check out these activities available in my TPT store. Click out the images below to learn more.

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Spectacular Spider Activities: Spidery Learning Activities

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Check out these fun spider activities for your preschool and pre-k classroom. These are perfect if you are teaching spiders theme unit or lesson plans. My son and I have enjoyed using our magnetic spiders for several years. I recently got them out to use for decorations, games, and shenanigans, and thought I would share a few magnetic spider activities with you.

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Fun way to keep your students engaged and learning

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Using Podcasts in the Classroom - Teach Create Motivate

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Podcasts in the classroom are so fun and engaging! Have you jumped on the podcast train yet?! I have a great system for using podcasts in the classroom…

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Are your students done too early? Use this as a way to keep them entertained while the class catches up

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My first year of teaching, I created an "I'm Done" jar for my fast finishers and it was seriously amazing! I always had students who finished their "must do's" quickly. They just got it! When they came up to me and exclaimed, "Teacher! I'm done!" I generally would just tell them to go read a book. I wanted to figure out *more* ways to challenge and engage my students who finished quickly. So I complied a list of activities that would be fun and meaningful for my students and stuck them in a jar. It worked wonders!

As the year progressed, I found more ways to incorporate learning activities for my fast finishers. They also started using recording sheets with the "I'm Done" jar. These sheets helped keep my students accountable and gave them an activity to focus on when they were finished with their work. I ALWAYS check my students assignments before they chose a stick from the "I'm Done" jar to make sure that they completed it correctly. After I send them back to fix it 4 times, they get the picture 😉

My goal this summer was to make an "I'm Done Station". This was really a labor of love! I've been working on it for months and I'm finally ready to share it with you guys!

Okay, let's start with the "jar"!

I found this adorable pail in the Target dollar spot and obviously had to have it! I added scrapbook stickers to it and tied ribbon onto the handle to make it fancy! Of course, I had to make the jumbo popsicle sticks fancy too 😉 I traced scrapbook paper around each stick and mod podged the paper on. Then I added the labels with mod podge as well {which are included in my download on TpT!}.

When my students are finished with their work, they choose a stick from the jar. I have 12 options for them, but I only set out 6 at a time. This is just a tactic to make the new sticks that much more fascinating when they're introduced 😉 I also labeled each stick with an image for my non-readers to be able to understand.

I printed and laminated labels for my plastic drawers to organize the recording sheets. The labels are attached with double sided tape so that they're easy to remove when I want to switch them out.

Aren't these pink drawers so fun!? When I saw them at Joann's Fabrics and Crafts, I knew I had to have them!

To keep everything organized and consistent, I used the same icons for the labels, sticks, and recording sheets.

After some modeling and teaching, all of these activities can be completed independently, giving me time to
work with students who may need more help! I also put a completed example sheet in the "I'm Done Station" as a reference. The activities that are too hard for my students to complete independently without being explained first are always done together as a class before I put them in the drawers.

The reading response sheets are probably the ones that need to be modeled the most. We usually complete these sheets together as a class after a read-aloud. Once we do it three or four times, my students are able to complete it by themselves.

Here's an example of one reader's response sheet:

We practice writing the title of the story we read and the author. Then we illustrate a quick picture of what happened at the beginning, middle and end of the story.

When my students are ready, we start to add writing to our responses:

Another class favorite is finding words they know in the book they are reading! They also love using mini clipboards and walk around the room writing words they know.

Sometimes I put the activities in a sheet protector to save paper. Then my students complete it using a dry-erase marker.

If my students run out of time before completing their recording sheet, they put it in their "finish it folder" and take it out the next time they finish their work early. We keep our finish it folders in our cubbies with work that needs to be completed. They know to check their finish it folders before picking a new stick from the jar.

These recording sheets incorporate reading, writing, and math, while encouraging higher level thinking and incorporating Common Core Standards. But they are also really fun! My students love writing letters to their friends and notes to their classmates.

Looking to make an "I'm Done Station" in your classroom? You can find all the labels and recording sheets ready to print and assemble in my shop!

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Ideas for Fast Finishers - Miss Kindergarten

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My first year of teaching, I created an "I'm Done" jar for my fast finishers and it was seriously amazing! I always had students who finished their "must do's" quickly. They just got it! When they came up to me and exclaimed, "Teacher! I'm done!"

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Perfect for grades 1-8th

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AdaptedMind is a customized online math curriculum, problems, and worksheets that will significantly improve your child's math performance, guaranteed. We make learning fun, game-oriented, and give you ways to get involved.

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Look through and see what catches your eye

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Teaching Tools | Resources for Teachers from Scholastic

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It can be very overwhelming, especially for my struggling readers, to focus on using multiple reading comprehension strategies with a piece of text. For this reason, I always take time in at least the first quarter of the school year to teach and review them individually. This way students have the academic language and practice under their belt when tackling texts that require use of many strategies.

You can teach them in any order, but I always begin with visualizing. I find this to be the most concrete strategy for students to practice independently at any reading level. Synthesizing Information is always what I teach last as I find it to be the most challenging. I do teach each strategy differently, but here are the basic steps I take when teaching a strategy:

You'll find that the major comprehension strategies taught from classroom to classroom can vary. I personally love following the 7 Keys to Comprehension (Zimmerman and Hutchins, 2003).

WHAT ARE THE 7 KEYS TO COMPREHENSION?
1. Visualize/Create Mental Images
2. Background Knowledge/Make Connections
3. Ask Questions
4. Make Inferences/Predictions
5. Determine Importance
6. Synthesize Information
7. Monitor Comprehension/Use Fix-Up Strategies

HOW I TEACH THE READING STRATEGIES IN 5 STEPS:

1. INTRODUCE THE STRATEGY WITH A POSTER/ANCHOR CHART

I have a reading strategies word wall hanging up on my wall year-round, but when I am about to explicitly teach one, I always use a larger, more detailed reading strategy poster (printed on 4 pieces of regular paper) so students really hone in on the one strategy we are working on. I go through the anchor chart explaining what it is, along with details and a visual showing a quick example of the reading strategy.

2. MODEL STRATEGY WITH A READ ALOUD
I choose a book that works well for the particular strategy. Then, I model using the strategy through a think aloud before, during, and after reading. I try to mix up using fiction and nonfiction texts, so that students see they can use reading comprehension strategies with ALL texts. I also like to have examples or thinking stems (sentence starters) on the poster or written on the board as an extra support to push students to use the strategy correctly.

3. GUIDED READING
I either do this beginning with the second half of the book from Step 2 or with a different book. I do guided practice of a strategy through discussion as a whole class, providing students with sticky notes, having them markup passages, or giving them a graphic organizer. With students that need more practice, I will continue working on the strategies with them in small groups.

4. INDEPENDENT PRACTICE

I love using reading strategy graphic organizers, highlighters, and sticky notes for independent practice. I usually let students first independently practice with a book that we have all read as a class. This helps me to see clearly who is really grasping using the strategy and who still needs help. Then, I give them different graphic organizers for each strategy to use with their own independent reading books.

For hands on learners, and to just keep reader response fresh and engaging, these reading comprehension strategies crafts do the trick. They are similar to graphic organizers, but are a bit more interactive in order to reach all types of learners in a classroom.

5. ONGOING REVIEW
As I introduce a new strategy, I have them continue to practice using ones we have already learned in order for them to get multiple exposures using all strategies. I try not to teach them too close to each other unless I see that they are really using a new strategy well. After introducing and practicing all strategies, which is usually by the 2 nd half of the school year, I have graphic organizers available for them to choose whichever strategy they would like to work on during independent reading. With some groups that always choose the same strategies, I will have them use a focused reading strategy check list (free) to ensure they are switching it up.

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5 Steps for Teaching Reading Strategies in an Elementary Classroom

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It can be very overwhelming, especially for my struggling readers, to focus on using multiple reading comprehension strategies with a piece of text. For this reason, I always take time in at least the first quarter of the school year to teach and review them individually.

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Teacher helping other teachers out

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This website can help students and help parents help their children.

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A required part of this site couldn’t load. This may be due to a browser extension, network issues, or browser settings. Please check your connection, disable any ad blockers, or try using a different browser.

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Remind your students/parents about a specific event/assignment.

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These printable paper reminder and brag watches that look like Apple watches are great for elementary students! Choose a pre-made message or add your own. Print and cut. Students can attach the watch to their wrist with a little piece of tape (double sided tape works really well!) If you want to reuse the watches for lunch numbers, bus numbers, etc., you could always laminate the watches and attach them with velcro.

Use as reminders and/or as rewards. Reminders could be for students to remember to bring something back to school or they could serve as a special reminder throughout the school day. Make students feel special by giving them a positive message watch that they can wear home and share with a parent.

Print on Astrobright paper for a pop of color or print on standard white paper. Students could even color in their own watch.

strong>What is included?

This product comes in Google Slides™. There are 10 different printable watches:

★ Completely editable template: Add your own custom message, clipart, Bitmoji, QR Codes and more!

★ Reminder editable template

★ Reminder: Bring in signed field trip permission slip

★ You've Got This! (with thumbs up emoji)

★ Well Done! (with winking emoji)

★You're so bright! (with emoji wearing sunglasses)

★Awesome Job! (with star-eyed emoji)

★You are a great friend! (with emoji blowing a kiss/heart)

★Happy Birthday! (with birthday cake emoji)

★Good Choices! (with fingers making the "okay" sign emoji)

You could even delete the text boxes on the first slide, print the empty watches and cut out. Use these when you are in a rush and just hand write a message on the watch face.

I also included a slide that contains each kind of the 6 emoji watches all on one slide.

There are two slides for each type of watch: 1) white wrist band 2) gray wrist band. Six watches per slide.

This product comes as a link in a PDF file. First, make sure you are signed into your Google account. Click on the link and you will be prompted to "Make a Copy". Rename the file. It will be sent directly to your Drive!

© 2015 Google and the Google Apps are registered trademarks of Google Inc.

**************************************************************************

Follow Me so you can be notified about my latest products! (Click the star near The Techie Teacher icon)

You can also follow me on:
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EDITABLE REMINDER AND BRAG WATCHES IN GOOGLE SLIDES™

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These printable paper reminder and brag watches that look like Apple watches are great for elementary students! Choose a pre-made message or add your own. Print and cut. Students can attach the watch to their wrist with a little piece of tape (double sided tape works really well!)

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Wish your students luck on testing days!

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Wish your students luck on testing days!

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Something cute to do for your students.

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From state testing to any kind of testing, give your kids a A GOOD LUCK PENNY and watch their faces light up and their self confidence grow!!

Please enjoy this free resource! It's simple and easy. Just print it out, attach a Lucky Penny, sign it and hand it out on testing day!!

I created this for my kids after we read the book "The Anti-Test Anxiety Society" by Julia Cook. This book teaches kids the power of using the "Get To" side of the brain versus the "Have To" side of the brain. It introduces them to the Dynamic Dozen (12 test taking strategies), and reminds them that the word test doesn't have to stand for Terrible Every Single Time. Instead, the word test should stand for Think Every Situation Through, so they can be Terrific Every Single T ime!

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From state testing to any kind of testing, give your kids a A GOOD LUCK PENNY and watch their faces light up and their self confidence grow!!Please enjoy this free resource! It's simple and easy. Just print it out, attach a Lucky Penny, sign it and hand it out on testing day!!

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Engage a child's mind while learning

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Educational games and videos from Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, Wild Kratts and other PBS KIDS shows!

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Free scientific calculator for high school math

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A beautiful, free online scientific calculator with advanced features for evaluating percentages, fractions, exponential functions, logarithms, trigonometry, statistics, and more.

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Can be used to engage students minds