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Some students have difficulty working with decimals. Others misunderstand how place value helps when working with decimals operations. And other students struggle with number operations in general. Read on to find out the ways we support the different math learners in our classroom before working with decimal operations.
[Read more…] about How to Help Your Students Master Decimal Operations
Over the years, we’ve had students that don’t want to correct their math errors. Why do students need to know how they made a mistake? For students, it helps them understand where they went wrong so they don’t repeat the errors. For teachers, it helps narrow down how to support or teach the student. But how do you teach students to analyze errors in math?
[Read more…] about How to Teach Students to Analyze Errors in Math
Most Canadian elementary teachers teach their own art lessons and most do not have any formal training outside of what they learned while earning their Bachelor of Education. That training can vary from a semester of learning to techniques to an afternoon painting one watercolour painting. Don’t worry, ninjas, we got a collection of art projects that will last all year. No planning needed!
[Read more…] about Art Projects That Will Last All Year
Each year in Canada, we celebrate Women’s History Month in October. This is in line with the International Day of the Girl and observing the anniversary of the Person’s Case, which took place in Canada on October 18, 1929. Women’s History Month was officially declared in 1992 by the Canadian government to celebrate the achievements of Canadian women.
In the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom, Women’s History Month is observed in March. This is because many important women’s rights events happen during March in the United States. It took until 1987 for the American government to make it an official observance. International Women’s Day is in March as well.
It doesn’t matter when the month is. Women’s history should be taught as part of your overall history plan. Young girls and boys need to see women represented in all types of jobs and occupations. They all need to be taught that gender does not reflect how a person should be treated, paid, or ruled by laws.
That is why we try to have books that represent women and girls to the students in our classroom.
[Read more…] about Books For and About Powerful Women
Each year, we spend a good chunk of time creating Remembrance Day art projects to decorate the halls of our school. Our Remembrance Day assembly often invites community members, so we like to have beautiful art to enjoy. There are always a lot of poppies. We wanted to create some pieces for upper elementary students that took a little more time and care to create but were not poppies.We took Remembrance Day beyond the poppy.
[Read more…] about How to Create Memorable Remembrance Day Art Projects
We love using project based learning as one teaching strategy to engage students. The challenge with this type of learning is keeping students on track. Nothing is worse than getting to a deadline and discovering none of the students are done. So, how do we keep our students accountable during project based learning?
[Read more…] about How to Keep Students Accountable During Project Based Learning
Some students love working in groups, while others prefer to work independently. There are many reasons students should learn to work in groups, but often we find teachers forget to teach the students what that looks like. Students need explicit teaching to understand the different group roles and processes. Here are some activities you can try to help your students get the most out of their group work.
[Read more…] about How to Teach Students to Work in Groups
We don’t assign formal homework to our students. It’s actually a district policy, but we also don’t believe that homework serves any real purpose other than causing frustration at home and making work for students. Instead, we assign a list of activities students can do at home instead of homework. We get WAY more engagement and everyone loves it.
[Read more…] about Amazing Activities Students Can Do Instead of Homework
One of our favourite things to do on the first day of school is a simple art project. We’ve collected some art projects for back to school that we’ve used over the years to help us get to know our new students. Self-portraits and names are great ways to get to know the personalities of your new students. Even more, having conversations while students are working is a fantastic way to get kids talking without realizing they are sharing.
Come check out these art projects for back to school (that can work any time of year)
[Read more…] about Simple Art Projects for Back to School
Years ago we started keeping a journal of all the funny little things that happen in our classroom. This was a suggestion by one of our cooperating teachers when we were students teaching. Writing down little stories that happen at school each day has been one way to relive the sweetest moments of each school year.
Come read some of our favourites stories from our Overheard in My Classroom series.
[Read more…] about Hilarious Stories You’ll Love: Overheard in My Classroom
While it might seem like schools around the world are similar, education is viewed very differently. Canada and the US are commonly lumped together as being the same, but there are many fundamental differences in schools in each country. Let’s take a look at some of the differences between Canadian and American schools.
[Read more…] about 11 Differences Between Canadian and American Schools
Many French teachers struggle with how to assess French in their upper elementary classes. This is especially challenging for teachers who aren’t feeling confident with their own French skills.
Assessing French is the same as assessing many other subjects that are taught in school, but the degree of progress can vary greatly between students. Here are some of the ways we assess French in our classroom.
[Read more…] about How to Assess French as a Second Language
