On average, teachers spend over a thousand hours with their students each year. It’s no surprise, then, that students’ relationship with their teacher can be an extraordinarily valuable one. When many children are asked who they look up to, identify with, and gather...
Let’s take a look at three math instruction “truths”: Math concepts typically have a somewhat linear development cycle; new concepts often build, upon previous ones. To gain mastery, math skills require a two-fold "how to" method of learning that involves both...
As we head into 2017, more schools than ever are looking to incorporate blended learning into their classrooms. Blended learning is the practice of combining traditional teaching methods with technology. Of course, the big question becomes: Why is this type of...
Teaching via a mix of educational technology and in-person instruction -- a blended learning model -- can help you enhance engagement and progress within the classroom. However, instituting “blended learning” simply for the sake of adding technology to the classroom...
Response to Intervention (RTI): If you've been in the classroom within the last ten years, there is a large chance that you've heard of (and utilized) this reinforcement and recovery measure. After first learning about RTI models, many educators (and myself) asked,...
So you've taken your first year of the Smarter Balanced online assessments and now you're looking for places for your students to get more practice. Don't worry! Free Smarter Balanced examples, practice exams, and test samples exist and they are readily available. The...
We know that there are two different Common Core-aligned assessment consortia, but what exactly makes them different? In this blog post we review the key elements of Smarter Balanced and PARCC assessments. What makes them similar? What makes them different? Read below...
Have you heard of Blended Learning? Youre probably rolling your eyes at the screen. If you've been anywhere in the remote vicinity of the education realm in the past couple years, you've heard of and have probably seen efforts to blend online and offline learning...
In today's blog post, we wanted to take a quick look at the available PARCC online assessment practice and sample resources. The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), one of two state consortia developing Common Core-aligned...
As you know, Common Core-adopting states are less than a year away from completing their transition to the new standards and assessments. As this process inches closer to the 2014-2015 deadline, we have begun to hear the phrase "Common Core math" bantered around quite...