April is recognized nationally as Autism Acceptance Month and April 2nd is recognized by the United Nations as Autism Awareness Day. In honor of promoting Autism awareness and acceptance, I thought this week we could explore one of the most common cognitive impairments that challenge...
No teacher wants to admit it, but every year certain math lessons and even whole chapters are either skimmed or skipped over entirely. But before anyone who is not a teacher gets all judgmental, please realize that math teachers face a steep uphill battle every year trying to cover the whole...
Ahhh the ever mysterious 504 plan. In many schools and school districts if you ask a teacher or school personnel about one, it seems to be something that no one can ever really give you a straight answer about and a topic that many even may avoid, embarrassed that they have no idea how to answer...
Ask any teacher or student what their least favorite thing about math is and more than likely you will hear the response of word problems come up again and again. They are no picnic for parents either! For students staring down a word problem, it can feel like they are being tested on an entirely...
State testing week brings out all the feels! Teachers, students and parents all feel the pressure to perform as schools attempt to simultaneously emphasize just how important these tests are while also advising not to stress out the students with too much, well, pressure. It can feel impossible...
Guess what?! It’s officially SPRING BREAK season!! I say season because depending on your school district and where you live in the country your Spring Break could fall anywhere in between the first week in March and the second week in April. This week out of school is a fun time to enjoy...
Personal sharing time alert. When my third child was 18 months old I took him to his pediatrician to receive his scheduled immunizations (which included 5 different shots!). Later that day he suffered a traumatic seizure in which he fell unexpectedly, began jerking uncontrollably and...
When it comes to working with fractions, you can never have enough tricks up your sleeve. Whether it is a way to help your students remember the correct order of several steps to solve a confusing problem, or just a trick that provides a less complicated way of doing things, we’ve got...
Students who have an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) that includes a goal in the area of math need more support as well as understanding from the people in their lives that have the potential to impact their learning and progress the most: their grade level teacher, their special education...
This stretch of the school year between Halloween and Christmas is filled with exciting days for kids, with more fun and less work as time is made for classroom parties and activities. As a teacher these days can be exhausting and if I’m honest, a little frustrating. Not because...
I think we can all agree that math homework is important. The time that teachers have in a math class period is constrained. Just trying to take attendance, work in some kind of bellringer for review (which is also important) and check homework eats up a significant amount of class....
By this point in the school year, most everyone has reached or is approaching the end of the first nine weeks of the school year. The report card grades will soon be coming in and It's a good time to congratulate your student(s) on the skills they mastered and also reflect on what skills...
