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What makes Pi Day even more fun? Daylight Saving Time!  Why not check your students' understanding of this strange, coordinated leap forward. Here are some resources for your class to help kids make sense of Daylight Saving Time. 

Part of 'doing' school in the United States is responding to display questions. These are questions teachers ask to give students a chance to demonstrate their understanding, their frame of mind, their active participation.

How will AI change elementary math education? Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to change the way math is taught in elementary schools by providing personalized and adaptive learning experiences for students. For example, AI-powered educational software can use data from a student's performance to adjust the difficulty of problems and provide tailored feedback. This ... Continue Reading

Good meals require planning and preparation ~ the same goes for good mealtime conversations. Here are a few ideas to help you serve up a discussion as tasteful as the meal.  How long would it take for the USA to adopt the metric system? Which changes would have most impact on you? What would it ... Continue Reading

I don't know, how are words like backpacks? Well~ each word we use is bursting with meaning and information. We use words to carry big ideas and concepts in simple, compact packages. They can get stuffed full of all kinds of things ~ every once in a while it is a good idea to ... Continue Reading

The more we know about cognitive load and its impact on working memory, the better off our students will be. Cognitive load is the amount of information competing for a students' attention. Students can only hold so much in their working memory. When there is too much new information for students to keep in working memory, then some of it will get lost. Teachers who reduce cognitive load help students learn math.

Teaching academic vocabulary is essential in order for students to understand the related concepts.

At some point, almost every elementary school teacher feels that students are taking advantage of their kind and patient nature. Once this happened, during writing time. I explained that I was ready for more writing and less talking. I must have made my point because I recall everyone furiously writing at their desks, heads down, no conversation. 

In international schools there’s usually a handful of kiddos in class who speak little to no English.  Often they’re reluctant to speak in class for the first few weeks. It takes a brave child to come to school everyday without speaking the language. They never knew exactly what was  going to happen.

One of the many good things about teaching in Europe is taking students on field trips using public transportation. For example, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam has free lunch concerts every Wednesday. Both the school and the Concertgebouw were close to the 5 tram. So I found a parent for every two children which left me free to deal with  - well anything that came up - and we had a wonderful afternoon. 

One minute I was teaching multiplication to second graders at the International School of Amsterdam and the next thing I knew American, British, and Australian parents were at my door. With a HUGE second grade problem.

One little guy had plans to be a restaurateur during the week and a paleontologist on the weekends.