Snapshots of Great & Unusual Teachers

In Bill Smoot's book Conversations with Great Teachers, he crosses the nation to find teachers in every realm of life, from the K-12 classroom to the circus to the FBI to the Outback.

Here are a few snippets from his interviews that show just how much teachers have in common, no matter who, where, what or how they're teaching.

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Using Google Art Project for Virtual Field Trips

The field trip is a staple of elementary education, and it’s easy to see why. From the educator’s standpoint, taking the students out of the classroom for a day allows them to fully engage with a subject and learn visually in a museum, cultural, or wildlife setting.

It provides the opportunity to implement goals and lesson plans that deviate from the norm. It also forces students to share, communicate, and work in groups in a way they normally wouldn’t in a classroom setting.

From the student’s perspective, the field trip is a great way to get out of the classroom and break from the boring routine. Even a history museum can be exciting in the field trip context, and inquisitive students will always appreciate the opportunity to go somewhere new and see something different. Teachers can consequently use such an outing as an incentive to learn.

But field trips can be expensive for a school district and stressful for the teacher who has to keep track of 30 kids in a large museum. They also can be limiting. Unless your school is located in a major metropolitan area, there are probably only so many zoos, science centers, and wildlife preserves that you can visit.

Fortunately, the power of technology can address these issues by bring the field trip to your classroom.

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Teach Me: Student-Led Instruction Strategies

Teaching tools, tricks, and ideas are an essential component of a teacher’s ‘arsenal’ when it comes to having engaged students and strong teachable moments.

The one tool that I rely heavily upon is a concept I termed as ‘Teach Me,’ though you may heard it called by other terms. Simply,  the idea behind Teach Me is when the teacher lets the student teach a concept to them.

The student goes through the whole concept, or study, giving it to you in extreme detail.  What it basically means is that your student becomes the teacher; teaching it to you.

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Easy Differentiation for Classroom Teachers

As teachers, we hear the buzzwords differentiated instruction all the time.  We know that differentiation is important in the classroom because not all students learn the same way.  Even with the knowledge that DI is important to help students succeed, why do many teachers feel like they aren’t doing enough of it, if at all?

Most teachers would say that to make tiered lesson plans for every class of every day would be impossible to fit in to their already limited planning/prep periods with all the other pull-outs, modifications, assessments, and push-ins they already have to add to their lesson plans.

Finding easy ways to implement DI is – believe it or not – very achievable even with the busiest teacher’s schedule! Differentiation of instruction can be done in one of three ways (or a combination of two or more):  content, process, or product.

Let’s look at three simple ways to differentiate for each.

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Top 12 Ways to Rev Up Classroom Review

In my district, returning from spring break marks the beginning of the fourth marking period; the final countdown to summer vacation. Teachers and students alike look forward to school’s off season.  Yet, before we can cross the finish line, there is one final obstacle to hurdle - testing season.

There is no question that the academic endurance of both teachers and students is challenged by the onslaught of final tests, state assessments and exit exams at this time of the school year. The pressure for students to perform well has surely increased with the decision of many states to include students’ test scores on the “report cards” of teachers. 

As we approach the end of the year, the following review strategies should prove helpful, and even fun, no matter the grade level or content area in which you teach.

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Earth Day Interview: Eco-Education with the Sustainability Academy

A Vermont magnet school is taking Earth Day ideals to the next level. The Sustainability Academy at Lawrence Barnes is one of the first schools in the country to integrate sustainability education throughout their curriculum.

Anne Tewksbury, a sustainability coach at the Burlington K-5 magnet school, gives us the inside scoop on this eco-friendly school.

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If Teachers Were Treated Like Celebrities...

Can you imagine what it would be like if teachers were treated like actors, athletes, and singers or even reality TV “stars?”

A teacher's life would be so different...

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Earth Day Prep: Recycling with Students

Recycling: everyone knows they SHOULD do it; not everyone does. What better place to start green habits than in the classroom?

We’ve all heard (and used) the excuses: it's not a practical option in all areas; it takes more energy to recycle some materials than it does to create new ones; the sorting process is too confusing, or takes too long; my students need to be the priority, not their garbage.

Though it may not be a question on standardized tests, recycling, energy conservation and green living are crucial factors in our world. Students need to know about these issues in order to be informed citizens, as well as responsible Earth-dwellers.

Establishing that knowledge and those good habits doesn’t have to be a hassle.

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Using Improvisation for Differentiated Instruction

It was almost 20 years ago that I attended a National Endowment for the Humanities program for teaching Shakespeare through performance as an inner city high school teacher. It was at this institute that I learned how critically important it was for students to learn creatively and kinesthetically.

We are all familiar with Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences, but as a teacher I struggled with the implementation of this theory into teaching and learning activities. I decided to try out the many techniques that I learned at the Shakespeare institute with my students.

I soon realized that it was essential for me to ditch the “one size fits all” study guides. My classroom was made up of diverse learners and I knew that I needed to differentiate the teaching and learning strategies in my classroom.

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Grading Overload: 12 Time-Saving Assessment Strategies

There’s a faculty meeting tomorrow, a parent-teacher conference the next day, you have to prep your materials for that project next week, and – almost forgot – you still haven’t graded the assignments from two weeks ago, plus a new stack of papers walks in with today’s students. And somewhere in all of this you might actually want to see your family or catch a movie while it’s still in the theater.

Sound familiar? Don’t despair – try these tips to avoid grading overload:

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Tax Man Turned Teacher: Interview with Former CEO Tom Bloch

Tom Bloch spoke with TeachHUB.com to discuss his transition from CEO of family company H&R Block to inner-city teacher, charter school founder and author of Stand for the Best.

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Teaching: What I Didn't Learn in College

I was an adult student, attending college in all of my seriousness, so eager to learn everything there was to know on how to be a teacher. I wanted to be good, great even, and I studied, and I planned, and I reflected my little heart out. And then I graduated, got my first teaching job and realized that I had very little idea of what it meant to really be a teacher.

So what I didn't learn in college is really quite a lot. I didn't learn how to gain my students' trust, interest or even attention. Instead I learned systems of control, management, and planning that would force students to listen. I didn't learn how to teach a child that consistently gets 5 hours of sleep every night because of parent job situation and therefore puts his head down on his desk every day. I learned that each child better pay attention to me because that is what children are supposed to do.

Teaching: What I Didn't Learn in College

Science Fair Video Guide for Students

Science Fair Tips for Students

Created by high school student Kevin Temmer, this animated video is an excellent way to get students ready to complete a science fair project. The 15-minute video is a super student-friendly, step-by-step guide to science experiments that will ease science fair stress for students of all ages.

Based on this video, here's a text guide that you can also share with students.

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Top 10 Teacher Facts That'll Make You Proud

With public education currently under attack from many different sides, it is important that we as educators, become advocates for our profession. We need to arm ourselves with the facts, with why we should be proud of what we do, and how well we do it.

With that in mind, here is a list of ten interesting facts that teachers should be proud of. Read them for yourself…and then share them with everyone you know!

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Using Movies to Increase Student Learning

In past English classrooms, students often looked forward to the end of literature units. Once the final test was over, they knew the teacher would bring in the video version of the book – giving students a two day break to sleep, pass notes to friends, finish homework for other classes, or maybe (just maybe) compare and contrast the movie with the novel.

I have found film versions of novels to be incredibly useful in teaching literature units. By using films in a different way than we might have used them in the past, we can change their status from “fun reward with little meaning” to “incredibly beneficial tool with many uses.”

Here are my classroom movie strategies to increase student learning:

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Teacher Spring Cleaning Guide

While “education” and “reform” may have become dirty words, you can reform your classroom into a sparkling, spic-and-span wonderland with a little spring cleaning.

Spring cleaning can encompass many things, including:

*literally cleaning out the dirt and clutter that has accumulated over the school year
*welcoming in the new season indoors, outdoors and in your lessons
*remembering and rethinking goals for the year that get lost in the day to day

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Top 12 Inspiring Real Life Teachers

Real life teachers offer inspiration to students every day. Great teachers give students confidence and knowledge that goes beyond simple education.

Here is a list of real-life teachers, some famous and some not, that stand out for their contributions to their students and the world.

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