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Free Resources Book Recommendations ROOT Teaching The Whole Child Teaching Tip of the Week
Free Resources Book Recommendations ROOT Teaching The Whole Child Teaching Tip of the Week
In this Teaching Tip I provide a link to a short YouTube video I created. In the video I present two simple strategies that you can use to help children speak in complete sentences. I learned many years ago that if parents and teachers want kids to write in complete sentences, we first need to teach them how to speak in complete sentences. The two strategies featured in the video do just that. Give this idea a try in class with your students or at home with your children.
In this Teaching Tip I provide a link to a short YouTube video I created. In the video I present an active learning strategy that I use in my classroom to help children correctly read aloud large numbers. Commonly, when reading aloud large numbers, kids will confuse the digit in the hundreds place with the digit in the thousands place or confuse the digit in the thousands place with the digit in the ten thousands place. The featured strategy incorporates clapping and snapping movements that help simplify the task of reading aloud large numbers into smaller, more manageable parts. Give this idea a try in class with your students or at home with your children.
In this Teaching Tip I provide a link to a short YouTube video I created. The video was inspired by a TED Talk given by Shawn Achor, CEO of Good Think Inc., entitled “The Happy Secret to Better Work.†Achor asserts in his talk that in our society people tend to believe that we should work hard in order to be happy, and he suggests that this way of thinking could be backwards. He argues that happiness makes us more productive, creative, and successful. In short, happiness should come first. At the end of his talk, Achor shares some ways that people can use to focus on the positive aspects of their lives and become happier. I tried one of these ways with my students, and it had a wonderful effect on the children and the classroom environment as a whole. Give this idea a try in class with your students or at home with your children.
In this Teaching Tip I provide a link to a short YouTube video. In the video I present a brief chant, along with a corresponding set of hand movements, to help children understand what it means to make an inference when they are reading. By repeating the chant and doing these movements for just a minute or two per day for a few days, kids will remember that when making an inference, they need to combine a piece of information from the text with their own knowledge. Give this idea a try in class with your students or at home with your children.
In this Teaching Tip I provide a link to a short YouTube video. In the video I describe a few ways in which children can form teams for sports. Traditionally, in this situation two children act as team captains and take turns selecting players until every child has been assigned to a team. This method may appear fast and efficient, but it can cause lasting self-esteem damage in the kids’ who are chosen last. In the video I share ways to form teams that avoid this type of public selection.