Making Plans to Help Improve Your Teaching in the Next School Year

You made it! Another school year, not just completed, but survived! Every school year coming to an end provides us with an opportunity to grow as professionals. It is essential to celebrate the end and use your experiences to make plans to help improve teaching in the next school year.

How Using Simple Visuals Makes it Easy to Create Effective Classroom Routines

Creating effective classroom routines takes time. A lot of time, if you're working with younger students or students with special learning needs, but even in the general-education classroom, using simple visuals can make the process of learning new routines much simpler.

How to Effectively Encourage Quality Whole-Class Discussions

I had an instructor once tell me that as a teacher, I shouldn't be the "sage on the stage" but rather the "guide on the side." I've never forgotten this analogy and think of him often as I work to encourage quality whole-class discussions with my students. 

How Simple Choice Boards Can Be Used as a Fabulous Differentiation Strategy

Differentiated instruction is a must in every classroom. In my 22+ years of teaching, I have never taught a class of students where everyone is working at the same level. My students have different strengths and interests, so providing them with one way to practice their learning is ridiculous. Simple choice boards are a straightforward differentiation strategy I love to use.

Encouraging Students to Feel Safe Taking Risks in Math: How to Help

Encouraging your students to feel safe taking risks in math is a huge piece of the achievement puzzle. Are you creating an environment that supports this? Here's how you can help!

How to Spark Social-Emotional Learning in Your Math Classroom

Social and emotional learning skills have been part of classrooms for years, albeit often without this label. Recently, though, social-emotional learning skills are showing up explicitly in the curriculum. The revised 2020 Ontario Math Curriculum includes an entire strand dedicated to SEL in Math. Here's how to build these skills in your classroom.