Instructional Coaching Corner
Monday, December 16, 2019
Monday, December 2, 2019
Friday, October 25, 2019
In the Spotlight: 6th Grade SS
How is it possible that Spanish Conquistador, Hernan Cortes, with his roughly 500 men, were able to defeat the entire Aztec empire in a span of a few years?
This week TIS 6th grade Social Studies teachers facilitated a fun and engaging activity using evidence and inferences. The transformed classrooms were made into CSI & FBI headquarters with crime scene caution tape draped across rooms and over doors. Some teachers even played the part by dressing up in detective gear and costume. Students used text evidence in Spanish and Aztec accounts, visual evidence from battle and interaction photos, and even invisible ink messages to help gather clues to crack the case. Cooperative groups discussed and questioned the sources to record their findings. Based on evidence, students independently wrote a theory on what they believe happened and how such a small number of Spanish could overtake the entire Aztec empire.
It is lessons like these that will live in the minds of our students for years to come. The 6th Grade Social Studies department is continuously thinking outside of the box to incorporate concrete lessons and enhance student learning.
Thursday, October 24, 2019
Amazon Inspire: Free Teacher Resources
Let's be honest! When we hear "Free Teacher Resources", we can generally equate that with crap. It is usually poorly put together, lacks rigor, contains mistakes, or is not conducive to the high standards of our classrooms. Amazon Inspire is a great site to be able to search for free, quality resources. And who doesn't love Amazon? (If you don't, we can't be friends!) The majority of the material is contributed by educational foundations, state departments of education, and universities. You will find professional development resources, interactive activities, rubrics, digital breakout games, and much more. (Disclaimer: Most of the resources are common core aligned, but can be tweaked for Texas state standards.)
Material is compiled by subject or grade, or you can simply search by typing in the content you are looking for. I am including a couple of resources below to highlight, but this is one that you really need to dive into yourself to use to its full capacity.
Friday, October 18, 2019
Tech Tools for Your Classroom Instruction
How amazing would it be to have a variety of technology tools for your classroom instruction compiled in a single click? Our fantastic tech team has done just that for you!
This list of technology tools has resources for everything from classroom management, annotation tools, digital flyers, vocabulary, video capturing, coding, literacy, photo editing, video conferencing, and SO much more.
Have an awesome lesson, but need a tech extension? Need an interactive vocabulary lesson to check for understanding? Want a new platform for a formative assessment? Check out these tech tools and dig in to something new!
Thursday, October 17, 2019
Cult of Pedagogy: Professional Awesomeness... Seriously!
THE BLOG
The blog consists of three categories to fill your teacher tool belt, your teacher mind, and your teacher heart.The Craft: resources for you to fine-tune your art of teaching.
Go Deep: where you can dig into theory and thinking behind the practices
Teacher Soul: the guts and raw emotions of teaching
THE PODCAST
Seriously, this is my guilty pleasure every day on the way to work! I feel that EVERY. SINGLE. TEACHER. should hear the professional dialogue, meaningful practices, and expert theories brought to you by this cute little podcast.
THE VIDEOS
The wide variety of professional videos demonstrate great teaching practices, share classroom management tips, show some tech tools so they look super easy, and offer up advice for some of your trickiest teaching situations.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
-
Bloom's Thinking & Learning Unless you've been living under a rock during your professional career, Bloom's Taxonomy ...
-
One of my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE resources is the Instructional Strategies Playlist from Lead4Ward. This is a great tool that encompasses stra...
-
Who's doing most of the talking in your classroom? Accountable talk is a powerful tool to promote deeper thinking and educational di...