Let's look at another one of those often expressed pieces of jargon many in the educational world like to throw out: “If you don’t love teaching, get out before you cause harm to the children.” I recently read an awesome article by Elizabeth Dampf called “It's about Skillsets, Not Sainthood.” In the latest ASCD article Elizabeth Dampf shares the very familiar expectations posed by the teaching world. As teachers, it is expected that we love our jobs, love our schools, and love our students. If we don’t…why are we teachers?

Another way to foster a collaborative classroom is to have your lessons be rooted in meaning. People are simply motivated to persist and achieve when they find value and meaning in what they do. One way to ensure meaning in your lessons is to give students a few choices.

We have said it before and we will say it again: good teaching does not involve rewards. Rewarding good behavior and punishing negative behaviors is not an effective way to get a class of students invested in learning. What does work? Building relationships.

Our SEL lessons focus on the five SEL strategies: relationship skills, responsible decision making, self-awareness, self-management, and social awareness.

All in all, leverage students’ strengths by creating meaningful group work activities to teach both academic and SEL skills necessary for the future job market, whatever that may look like in the next decade.

Always on the lookout for books to add to my classroom library shelves, I think this year especially has been a banner year for great books that I am sure will appeal to my students. Rising to the top for me, these are My Top 10 Middle School Books for 2022

Another step in fostering a classroom that is collaborative is to directly teach students how to be dependable.

Easier said then done, right? One of the best things that a teacher can do for a student is to help him/her on the path of becoming a life long reader. Here are some tips and tricks that we have incorporated into our classrooms:

Let’s Talk Classroom Libraries. We have all seen the beautiful Instagram or Pinterest worthy looking classroom libraries. You know the ones - they are color coded perfection. You may have even drooled over the pretty plastic book bins that each book is housed in. Those libraries look amazing! But, in our experience, those libraries just do not work for our students. Our libraries are lived in, the shelves are close to bursting with books, and we have a lot of books. I mean a lot-a lot!

Read on for a list of our lowdown dirty truths about classroom libraries.

Here are some new books that we are excited about that are coming out in October!