Teaching Articles

Tips for making your classroom experiences more productive for both you and your students.

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5 Reasons Kids Need Homework and 5 Reasons They Don't

Although many people think of homework as doing more harm than good by causing copious amounts of unnecessary stress to everyone, others believe that it has great advantages for children by encouraging them to think more independently outside the classroom.

5 Things All Great Teachers Have In Common

Great teaching often has less to do with wisdom and skills, but more to do with their attitude to their student, their subject and their work. This article explains the top five characteristics of great teachers, and how to incorporate them into your own lessons.

10 Habits of Highly Effective Students

In this article, we take a look at some of the most important traits and techniques that can help people to reach their full potential as a learner.

A Model Lesson Plan for Teaching Phonics

The following lesson designs demonstrate what the thinking process might entail as a teacher instructs a pupil in the area of phonics. The use of think alouds is a valuable tool for the pupil as well as the teacher.

An ADD Case Study: What Does it Mean to "Fail"?

A look at how ADD affects students academically as well as socially.

Balanced Literacy - What Is It?

Teachers must deal with all the different approaches to learning to read - of which there are many - in order to maintain a method that is well and truly 'balanced'.

Building Connections Through Music-Based Learning Centers

Imagine having a learning center in your classroom that fosters the artistic and creative side of children while at the same time helps children to build skills in other academic content areas. Imagine a center that uses music-based experiences as tools for building comprehension and content connections. While this type of learning center may be unique due to its musical nature, it is certain to appeal to children of all ages.

Classroom Difficulties - Dealing With Difficult Students and Parents

Confronting difficult students in your class is not something that teachers look forward to but it is a disruption that every educator will meet at some point during their career.

Community and Cultural Resources Integration Model

The Nichols Community and Cultural Resources Curriculum Integration Model is an attempt to organize a curriculum area which is often chaotic. School districts waste many thousands of dollars and instructional hours on activities that have little or no value as a learning experience. This writer was unable through his research to locate any model that claimed to structure this educational area.

Comparison of Digital Literacy Development Between Children and Adolescents

Our time is immersed in an age of rapid digital progressions and with these new technologies, comes the need to examine the nature of literacy development in childhood and adolescence and adjustments and modifications that must be made to encourage and refine the current methods of communication education so that students have the ability to effectively converse in our world.

Conducting A Functional Behavioral Assessment

Analysis of problem classroom behavior looks at its antecedents and consequences. Also includes a generator to make your own Functional Behavioral Assessment.

Creative Projects For Kids

We have an assortment of activities and projects that hopefully are new to you. Take some time to incorporate one of these low-cost, yet highly creative activities into your child's day!

Do Employers Take Online Degrees Seriously?

Many students are wondering whether online degrees are valuable alternatives to degrees studied at college, or are simply not taken seriously in the world of work.

Does Taking Classes Online Really Save You Money?

One reason people choose to enroll on such programs is that they believe it is a cheaper alternative to attended classes at an institution such as a college. But is this true?

Effective Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners

This tutorial is a summary and critical analysis of four recent journal articles on the above subject. The articles focus on the challenges ESL students face and how they translate into challenges for teachers. Following the summary of articles, strategies that teachers can use to help overcome these challenges will be discussed.

Emotional Intelligence v. Cognitive Intelligence

Does your IQ determine your potential or are there other factors? Our journey indicates that there is a great deal more to it.

Featured Financial Articles For Educators

Over 20 articles for teachers to consider no matter how close or far away you are from retirement.

Five Essentials for Creating a Positive Classroom

This article will highlight five tips to help you to start making small changes to your classroom routine that may create a more optimistic classroom setting.

How Stressed Is Your Child?

We always think that stress just applies to adults, but the sad truth is that some kids are just as stressed as adults.

How To Cure The Homework Blues

Create a system for your child or student that is fair and helps them achieve success.

How to Deal With Disruptive Students

A teacher's words and actions can affect a child forever. Are you ready to accept this challenge?

How To Develop Great Teaching Skills

How to form a long term plan to develop your skills as a teacher.

How to Differentiate Instruction

Effective teachers have been differentiating instruction for as long as teaching has been a profession. It has to do with being sensitive to the needs of your students and finding ways to help students make the necessary connections for learning to occur in the best possible way.

How to Effectively Use Report Cards

One of the most traumatic times in the lives of children and adults is the dreaded Report Card event! We never seem to outgrow the tension that precedes the distribution of these reflections of our academic performance. Documentation, professionalism and a personal touch are among the few things to consider.

How To Get Students To Assist That's Fair For Everyone

I helped already. He or she didn't do anything. Common things kids say. Create a system of responsibility that works for everyone. Even you the teacher.

How to Have A Successful Parent / Teacher Conference

Communication with parents or guardians is an essential for students' growth and learning. One means of communication is the Parent-Teacher Conference. Here are some tips for smooth and productive conferences.

How To Set Up An Organized Filing System

No one filing system works for everyone. In the end, the test of a good filing system is being able to find something when you need it. However, there are two basic recommended setup alternatives.

How To Use Operant conditioning in your classroom

Operant conditioning encourages positive reinforcement, which can be applied in the classroom environment to get the good behavior you want - and need - from your pupils.

Increasing Parent Involvement in School

Parents should be encouraged to participate in their children's education, both at home as well as in school.

Personal And Professional Growth: Old Dogs and New Tricks

How to never want to stop learning and grow in personally and professionally year after year.

Planning for Teacher Retirement

The following article addresses the subject of successful planning for teacher retirement.

Preparing to Teach in Another Country

In order to teach in another country such as Ireland, you would have to prepare myself in numerous ways both educationally and mentally... below you will see five things that I would do to help make my new teaching experience an easy transition.

Preventing Academic Failure: An Orton Gillingham Approach

Phonics instruction is crucial in the development of reading and language skills. Preventing Academic Failure (PAF), by Phyllis Bertin and Eileen Perlman is an Orton Gillingham based mulit-sensory program targeting grades one through four.

Seven Simple Steps To Get Your Kids To Eat Healthier

Diet can be focused for children by modeling the proper eating behavior. Here we look at the steps of change for your children.

5 Steps to Raising an Optimistic Child

Children need to be set in the right direction. We look at strategies to help them along.

Respect- How to teach it and how to show it

The best way to teach respect is to show respect. When a child experiences respect, they know what it feels like and begin to understand how important it is.

Should Environmental Studies Be an Integral Part of School Curriculum or a College Syllabus?

We look at the state of environmental studies in schools and colleges. Should it play a big part?

Should Sex Education Be an Integral Part of School Curriculum or a College Syllabus?

Should schools and colleges develop course curriculum for sex education? Should sex education be the responsibility of children's parents?

Substitute Teaching: An Insider's View

The purpose of this article is to provide you, current and potential substitute teachers, some guidance as to what you can expect in various situations and suggestions of what you should consider when you substitute teach.

Teaching Methods and Theory

In this section of our site we look at a number of well known teaching methods and the theory behind them.

Ten Sure-Fire Ways to 'Make' Conversation

We are always trying to open up to one another. Here are ten ways to get it started.

The Bridge to Powerful Writing and Increased Test Scores: Skills and Effective Methodology for Teachers

A case study of an effective technique to help students and teachers alike.

The Effects of Poverty on Teaching and Learning

This paper will examine the effects of poverty on teaching and learning. Poverty as a risk factor will be discussed as will a number of the many challenges that arise in teaching children of poverty. Implications of brain-based research for curriculum reform and adaptation will be presented.

The Effects of Substance Abuse on the Development of Children: Educational Implications

This paper seeks to describe the possible effects of substance abuse in gestation, the environmental effects from typical substance-abusive households, and the implications in the field of education. It also seeks to outline curricular adaptations, which can be made to appropriately educate children affected by these issues.

The Importance of Citing References

We have found that many people who are new to the Internet do not know how to cite references that are found on the World Wide Web, specifically, "electronic references." The purpose of this tutorial is to explain the importance of citing references appropriately and correctly and how to avoid "on-line plagiarism."

The Internet In the Classroom

We have a large number of relevant articles including using Facebook and Twitter.

Timeline for Getting Ready to Go to College

Planning for college is a two-year process. And unless a rich uncle is going to write that $30,000 check for you, it is going to involve acquiring and submitting financial aid forms, scholarship applications, and grant applications. But don't despair.

Understanding Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

The hierarchy of needs he created, and in 1943, released, is still used as a model to illustrate human motivation in classrooms across the US - and much further afield. How then, can we explain the concept? And what parts of ordinary life do each of the stages relate to?

Will Blogging Ever Be Looked At As a Career?

Although it takes a lot of time, effort and perseverance, blogging can be a successful career.

What are Learning Standards?

Learning standards are meant to determine the education policy and systems of the schools and are a part of the standards-based education reform movement in the recent past, a movement intended to provide more a consistent education across all school districts.

What are Mnemonic Devices?

In this article, we look at some of the most popular mnemonic devices that are used in education around the world today.

What is Andragogy?

Learning doesn't stop when you leave school. Many students will go on to attend colleges and universities, but in truth, your learning journey doesn't come to a halt here, either.

What is Bloom's taxonomy? How do teachers use it?

Bloom's taxonomy was created by a group of psychologists in 1956, with Benjamin Bloom at the helm. A mechanism for the classification and categorization of different levels of learning, teachers can apply the six-staged diagram's principles to intellectual learning in the typical classroom environment.

What is the Cognitive Abilities Test? COGAT

Cognitive abilities tests are specially designed exams used to measure a student's reasoning skills in three main areas: verbal, quantitative and nonverbal.

What is Maslow's hierarchy of needs?

In this article, we look in greater detail at each level of Maslow's hierarchy, looking at the things which humans seek in life for personal health, stability, and fulfillment.

What is the Orton Gillingham Method Of Reading Instruction?

Created by Samuel Torrey Orton and Anna Gillingham in the early stages of the 20th century, the Orton Gillingham reading approach consists of a set of techniques to teach reading differently than the way that is considered 'conventional'.

What is Phonemic Awareness?

In simple terms, it is the ability to hear and recognize sounds within phonemes, which is the correct term used to describe spoken words. Essentially, this in-depth awareness of the sounds that all words are made up of is a vital stage in learning to read.

What Is Special Education?

In 1975, with the passing of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, schools were required to provide an education for all special needs children. Thus, the birth of special education

What Techniques Can Make You More Marketable When You Look to Get Your Teaching Job?

There are some "golden rules" that you need to follow in order to ensure that you acquire that teaching job.

What to Consider When Writing a Lesson Plan

Even though there are so many lesson plan resources on the net, we believe that there can be no substitute for a lesson plan that is created by you, the teacher, that is tailored to the specific student populations you are serving. This tutorial is meant to assist you in developing a plan that is designed to meet the needs of your students and that is framed according to what is considered to be best practices in teaching and learning.

What is a Student Teacher? What Do They Do?

It's surprising how many people aren't sure of the role a student teacher has in the classroom. What precisely is it that they do? What responsibilities do they have?

What Is Metacognition?

It's a weird thought, but as human beings, we do 'think about what we think'; we 'know about what we know'. This process is known as Metacognition, and is our own ability to have an awareness of our cognitive processes when we are learning.

What Is Reading Fluency?

It's an ability that comes easier to some than others, but reading fluency means the same for everyone: the ability to read words and sentences with relative ease - quickly and smoothly, without much hesitation.

What is the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement?

It's been widely praised by leading figures in the educational occupation as a cleverly-produced mechanism for the measurement of cognitive abilities.

What Is Reading Intervention?

Such corrective approaches have been proven to be widely successful - children who may otherwise have gone unnoticed and been left disadvantaged by their reading difficulties are given the support and help they need.

Who was Abraham Maslow?

The Father of The Hierarchy of Needs.

Why Do We Say the Pledge of Allegiance in School?

In America, one of the key cornerstones of an educational day can be saying the pledge of allegiance in school.

Why Is Early Childhood Education So Important?

Early childhood education can play a vital role in the formation of a child. Let's look at why it is so important.

Why Rubrics?

For the purpose of this tutorial, the use of rubrics will be explored as a viable means of evaluating students' performances.