Blogs

Climate Change: An Opportunity for STEM Education

By Phil Kitchel posted 3 days ago
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By Mubina Schroeder In preparation for the upcoming Climate Change Summit at the United Nations, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated: “We need rapid and deep change in how we do business, generate power, build cities and feed the world.” Climate change and its far-reaching effects on the lives of everyone in the global community represent a unique challenge for society—and a unique opportunity for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. STEM educators often contend with ways to promote scientific literacy. How can we create the next generation of critical thinkers, creative problem solvers, and solution engineers? ...
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Building the Backbone of a Thematic Unit

By Phil Kitchel posted 6 days ago
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By Brian Williams and Kristen Wawer Implementing a thematic unit is an effective way to integrate standards, content, and culture into instruction. This type of unit will allow you to organize curriculum around a central theme. Specifically, a thematic unit is a series of lessons and activities that integrate a variety of topics that tie into a main theme (Brodzik et al., 1996). This method of curriculum organization will allow you to discuss important issues, bring together different kinds of materials, and have students work to make connections between course concepts and their own lives (Mitchell & Young, 1997). Introduction to Implementation ...
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Help Students Develop a Growth Mindset: 7 Tips to Foster Academic Resilience

By Phil Kitchel posted 13 days ago
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By Marla A. Sole According to Carol Dweck (2008), there are two types of mindsets: a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. A fixed mindset is the belief that intelligence is innate and unalterable. A growth mindset is the belief that intelligence can be developed, and we can make gains by being persistent, trying new strategies, and reaching out for support when we need it. Students who have a fixed mindset exert little effort when faced with obstacles, since their belief is that intelligence is fixed and that effort and outreach will be futile. Students with growth mindsets welcome challenges, embrace opportunities to expand their abilities, and are ...
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Be the Thermostat: How Teachers’ Actions Affect Classroom Management

By Phil Kitchel posted 20 days ago
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By Samantha Smith Thermostats set the temperature, do they not? If you want your house to be cool, wouldn’t you set the thermostat to a cooler setting? Likewise, if you’re wanting your classroom to be calm and productive, look to yourself first. It’s crucial to set the tone at the threshold. The first interaction with students each day is likely to set the tone for how class will continue. Imagine you’re a student walking into a classroom. Your teacher hasn’t made copies and is also stressed out from the previous class period. As you find your seat, your teacher begins a rant on how the day is unfolding, then proceeds to spout off expectations ...
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Coping With Stress as a Teacher

By Phil Kitchel posted 27 days ago
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By John W. Krupp Although the teaching profession can change the world for the better, it often comes with a great deal of stress. Struggling to manage this stress can lead to burnout and the loss of teachers (Akin, 2019). Teachers’ daily responsibilities include teaching the curriculum, preparing for high-stakes testing, grading, collaborating, communicating with parents, being a first responder, and leading extra-curricular activities to build school culture (Daniels et al., 2016; Hupe & Stevenson, 2019; Katic et al., 2019; Manuel et al., 2018). When faced with the many demands of the profession, stress is inevitable. New teachers typically ...
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An Attitude of Gratitude: The Truth About Learning Who You Are as a Teacher

By Raevyn Harris posted 08-31-2022
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By Lindsey Acton, Director of New Teacher Member Experience As you a re reading this, you’re probably in the first month of your school year —m aybe even the first week or two. You’re a new teacher, which means that , at some level, you’re still adjusting to expectations, procedures, and being in charge of a whole bunch of children who don’t belong to you. This can be daunting, and it can feel like you’re never going to get the hang of this new life you’re living. It’s been a couple months since we gathered for New Teacher Chat, but thinking about th e adjustment period you’re in, and how you ’re learning to establish yourself in your role as a ...
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4 Tips to Help Prevent Bullying in the Classroom

By Phil Kitchel posted 08-30-2022
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By Shanda Salvant Theriot Do you remember how old you were when you received your first smartphone or personal electronic device to access the world wide web, gaining access to thousands of apps and numerous social media sites? For me, it wasn’t until my junior year in high school; however, according to a survey conducted by Common Sense Media, a little over half (53%) of children in the United States, now own a smartphone by the age of 11 (Kamenetz, 2019). Looking back as an educator and parent, things have definitely changed! Although the Internet has proven to be very beneficial when it comes to communicating information remotely, it also ...
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6 Father-Centered Strategies for Family Engagement

By Phil Kitchel posted 08-23-2022
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By Kyle Miller Family engagement is a topic that continues to gain attention in school districts, with a recognition that families are vital to the success of students. However, family engagement typically manifests as mother engagement due to gendered school practices implicitly targeting and supporting mothers (Osborn, 2015; Posey-Maddox, 2017). For that reason, the efforts of fathers often remain unseen or misunderstood by schools and teachers. This was true in my experiences as a teacher and continues to emerge in my research with fathers. Recently, I interviewed 25 fathers about their current engagement with their children and their parenting ...
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6 Tips for Building Relationships and Communicating with Parents

By Phil Kitchel posted 08-16-2022
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By Julia Wilkins Whether or not you have taken a course in how to build relationships and communicate with parents, you might find yourself feeling completely unprepared. Because parental involvement in school is positively associated with student achievement, it is important to know how to build relationships with parents to facilitate their involvement. An important point to remember is that “parents” can mean grandparents, stepparents, foster parents, and more. Before you can effectively communicate with parents, you need to know their preferred method of communication, whether they have Internet access, and what language they primarily speak. ...
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“I Don’t Have that Number”: Understanding and Working with Undocumented Students

By Phil Kitchel posted 08-10-2022
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By Blanca E. Vega The article “ ‘When I Would Hurt’: Undocumented Students’ Responses to Obstacles Faced During the College-Choice Process,” by Vega, B.E., Kenny Nienhusser, H., & Carquin-Hamichand, M.S., is in the current edition of The Educational Forum and is available for free during the month of August 2022 . “I asked my mom, ‘I need this number because I need to apply for financial aid.’ She said, “We don’t have that number.” . . . So I spoke to the counselor and I told her that I don’t have that number. That’s when she told me that because I don’t have that number, it means that I’m here illegally. I don’t apply for financial aid. I don’t ...
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First-Year Vibes: Your Classroom, Your Arena

By Phil Kitchel posted 08-09-2022
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By Christopher J. Jackson Congratulations! You’ve made it to your first year as a teacher and your first classroom, your new “home away from home.” A teacher’s perception of their classroom says a lot about how their first year at the school could go. You can set the tone of your classroom from Day One by establishing an atmosphere for each student, no matter their cultural background, race, or ethnicity. This article provides five tips for making your classroom your arena. Feel the Classroom Vibes When you first walk into your classroom, I challenge you to stop, close your eyes, and imagine your room filled with students. Your students come ...
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The Intersection of Student Equity and Teacher Leadership

By Phil Kitchel posted 08-05-2022
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By Jeremy D. Visone The author’s article (coauthored with Courtney K. Mason and Keri MacLean), “ Teacher Leadership for Equity: Leveraging a Taxonomy for Improved School Experiences,” appears in the July 2022 issue of the Kappa Delta Pi Record. Get free access to the article through the month of August. Imagine you are a student with the following daily school experience. Because your bus picks you up at 5:30 a.m. and your stop is two blocks from your house, you wake up much earlier than most of your classmates. You have a 40-minute bus ride from the urban center where you live to your school in a suburban community. If your bus driver avoids significant ...
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Reflecting, Reframing, and Ever-Changing: A Kaleidoscopic Metaphor

By Phil Kitchel posted 08-02-2022
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By Micki M. Caskey and Karen Weller Swanson Being completely present means much more in the last 2 years due to COVID-19. After the difficulty of our first full year since the pandemic, it is time to take a breath and reflect. Teaching nudges us to think and rethink our practice, sometimes by choice and sometimes by circumstance. As we remember the challenge to bring our best selves into the classroom, bell hooks (2003) wrote that good teaching comes from whole teachers: “[T]he classroom is one of the most dynamic work settings precisely because we are given such a short amount of time to do so much. To perform with excellence and grace teachers must ...
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Gardening at School: Tips for Teachers

By Phil Kitchel posted 07-26-2022
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Garden-based learning is an exciting movement in the U.S. education system that has many benefits for students. School gardens have been shown to boost physical activity, increase fruit and vegetable consumption, improve student attitudes toward school, decrease problematic behaviors or those behaviors associated with attention deficit disorder, and effectively engage students of diverse backgrounds and learning styles (Berezowitz et al., 2015; Blair, 2009; Lautenschlager & Smith, 2007; Meinen et al., 2012). Further, garden-based learning can create memorable, hands-on learning opportunities that integrate gardening with math, science, social studies, and ...
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How to Make Human Rights Education a Reality in Your Classroom

By Phil Kitchel posted 07-20-2022
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By Isabel Quiñones I distinctly remember learning about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in a high school history class. I also learned about it as a Girls’ Leadership Worldwide participant through the Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val-Kill, the historic site that had been her home. Although I had all this information presented to me during my formal education, I never learned the details of this declaration and how it is being implemented throughout the modern world. By attending the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Learning, Training, and Practice Sessions, I gained some information and tangible resources to utilize with my students! ...
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Build Your Career: 4 STEM Professional Development Tips

By Phil Kitchel posted 07-19-2022
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Let’s be clear. Learning to teach is a career-long process, and building a successful teaching career in a rapidly changing society means devoting deliberate attention to your own professional development (PD) while keeping your students’ needs foremost in mind. Teaching is about preparing our students for success in the future. Looking to the future, many workplace demands will likely involve considerable knowledge in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), so preparing students effectively is critical. Therefore, even if STEM is not your strong suit, you owe it to your students to prepare to be a proactive STEM teacher regardless of your grade ...
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Managing Young Humans: Essential Principles for Effective Classroom Management

By Phil Kitchel posted 07-12-2022
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I remember my first days in the classroom with my little humans, thinking, “I LOVE teaching!” They were sweet and captivated by my voice and the cool things I created for their learning. Within days, however, it was clear that the “honeymoon” was over. Behaviors escalated. All kinds of them. Every one of which interfered with my teaching—and their learning. I wish someone would have taken me aside and said, “Ron, here are the essential things you need to know to manage your students.” Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. It took years to refine my classroom management plan. As you begin, I recommend the classic text Classroom Management That Works: Research-Based ...
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7 Tips for Managing Your First-Year Workload

By Phil Kitchel posted 07-05-2022
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Poet Maya Angelou once said, “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style” (2014). As a middle or high school teacher, sticking to a simple, well-considered routine can keep you from becoming overwhelmed and over-stressed during your first year of teaching. Follow these simple tips to minimize busywork, bring balance to your life, and focus on the priorities in your work. Let’s make that first year one of thriving, not just surviving! Plan on weekends, grade during the week. This is a routine I established during student teaching out of necessity. I was teaching ...
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A Personal Code of Ethics

By Phil Kitchel posted 06-28-2022
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My personal code of ethics began long before my professional life but has directly influenced how I govern myself in both areas. In life and in education, equality means that everyone gets the same thing, whereas equity means that everyone gets what they need to be successful. It is important to understand which is appropriate and when. As a long-time educator and life-long learner, my code of ethics is centered upon building relationships and conducting my personal and professional actions and interactions with equity in mind. (Wagle, 2017) I come from a long line of educators. My maternal grandmother taught kindergarten for 35 years in a small ...
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Big Classroom Dreams, Small Teacher Budget: 8 Tips to Stretch Your Dollar

By Phil Kitchel posted 06-21-2022
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Creating an inviting classroom environment can be an exciting yet stressful challenge for new teachers. Based upon our experiences as classroom teachers and teacher mentors, we have discovered eight practical suggestions for creating an inviting classroom environment on a limited budget. New teachers understand the importance of creating a well-managed and welcoming classroom. They recognize that an effective classroom management plan is “the primary determinant of how well students will learn” (Wong et al., 2012). For new teachers, however, budgets may be thin, and they may wonder how to create an inviting classroom environment on such a limited budget. Consider ...
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