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Are you juggling a lot of different levels of understanding and learning styles in your classroom after the pandemic?  

There’s a fine line between accommodations and modifications for students, but both are important to understand and can help you keep all your kids on track. 

 

In this episode, I’m focusing on accommodations in the classroom and talking about what they look like, how to implement them, and how they differ from modifications. 

 

If you need some ideas on how to accommodate for gaps in understanding due to the pandemic, I’ve got you covered. 

 

You can also come back to this episode anytime you’re struggling with accommodations in your classroom. It doesn’t have to be pandemic-related! 

Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/225

 

Resources Mentioned:

Visit the Madly Learning Store: www.madlylearning.com/store

I would love to connect on Facebook: http://facebook.com/MadlyLearning

 

 I would love to connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madlylearning

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Do your kids work a little differently in the classroom these days?

 

With COVID restrictions lifting here in Ontario, teaching is finally starting to feel normal again, except for the fact that now we’re teaching pandemic kids. 

 

Learning has looked pretty different for our students over the last two years. Many of them are used to working at home on a laptop or tablet with the freedom to walk around, go to the bathroom, and get snacks whenever they want. Others might not have had much access to technology at all and haven’t had as many opportunities to learn as their peers. 

 

This episode is here to help you and your students settle back into your less-restricted classrooms. I’m going over what it’s like to teach kids who have experienced a different style of learning over the last two years and what we can do as teachers to help them move forward. 

 

If you’re trying to figure things out as your classroom gets back to normal, this episode is for you. 

 

Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/224

 

Resources Mentioned:

Visit the Madly Learning Store: www.madlylearning.com/store

I would love to connect on Facebook: http://facebook.com/MadlyLearning

 

 I would love to connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madlylearning

 

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Are you constantly having to adapt to curriculum changes?  

Sometimes a new curriculum comes at us with little to no warning and we feel like we’re expected to overhaul absolutely everything to do it the new way. 

 

In this episode, I’m talking about how to handle curriculum changes and what you can do to reduce some of the stress that they cause. 

 

It’s important to remember that changes are made for a reason. It doesn’t make sense to keep an outdated curriculum that doesn’t reflect the world we live in today, so changes can be a really good thing. 

 

If you’re facing a curriculum change, I want you to know that often, it’s not as big of a deal as it seems. By the end of this episode, you’ll have the tools you need to handle it calmly and confidently. 

 

Tune in to find out how to handle curriculum changes like they’re no big deal. 

 

Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/223

 

Resources Mentioned:

The Madly Learning Teacher Store: www.madlylearning.com/store

 

I would love to connect on Facebook: http://facebook.com/MadlyLearning

 I would love to connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madlylearning

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Are there things you’ve tried in your classroom that you will absolutely never do again?

 

After 15 years of teaching, I’ve made my fair share of mistakes, but some stand out more than others and there are definitely some that I will never make again. 

 

In this episode, I’m sharing the top three things I’ve done in my classroom that I don’t ever want to do again. Hopefully, this will help you avoid making the same mistakes that I made or give you some ideas about how you want to run your classroom.

 

You’ll hear why I tried each of these things, why I stopped doing them,  and why I don’t plan on ever doing them again. 

 

I still make mistakes every day, but I do my best to learn from them and use them to make my classroom a better place for all my students. 

 

If you want to know what things I would never do in my classroom again, tune in. 

 

Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/222

 

Resources Mentioned:

Ignited Literacy and Ignited Math: www.ignitedteaching.ca

I would love to connect on Facebook: http://facebook.com/MadlyLearning

I would love to connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madlylearnin

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Have your students ever complained that they can’t play video games in your classroom? Mine did, and it gave me an idea for a classroom activity that I knew they would love. 

 

This is the story of how we ended up playing Minecraft in my classroom to learn about social studies. 

 

My students were shocked when I said yes to letting them play video games in class, and because I listened to them and let them lead, they were engaged in the project right from the start. 

 

Now, I didn’t just set my students loose on the computers and let them do whatever they wanted. We talked as a class about the curriculum expectations for their project on the global community, they created a plan for how to demonstrate the curriculum expectations in Minecraft, and then they did it! 

 

I even learned a thing or two about Minecraft along the way. 

 

If this sounds like something your students would love, tune in to find out how we made it work! 

 

Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/221

 

Resources Mentioned:

Get the Minecraft Project Outline for Free: http://www.madlylearning.com/minecraft 

I would love to connect on Facebook: http://facebook.com/MadlyLearning

 I would love to connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madlylearning

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What do you do with the rest of your class when you want to do guided reading with a small group?

 

That’s the question I hope I can answer for you in this episode. We’re digging into a bunch of different activities that you can use to allow you to focus on guided instruction while the rest of your students work independently. 

 

Independent learning might not always look the way you want it to. It’s important to remember that different students work in different ways, and it’s okay if they aren’t silent and still the whole time that you’re working with a small group. What’s more important is that your students stay engaged in what they’re doing until you get back. 

 

We’re talking about how to teach your students to work independently, what independent learning tasks should look like, and how to hold students accountable for the work they are assigned.

 

What are you going to try next time you need to do guided instruction? Tune in to get some ideas. 

 

Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/220

 

Resources Mentioned:

Learn more about Ignited Math: www.madlylearning.com/ignitedmath

Learn more about Ignited Literacy: https://www.ignitedliteracy.com/IL2021SP

 

I would love to connect on Facebook: http://facebook.com/MadlyLearning 

I would love to connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madlylearning

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Do you hate marking? Yeah, me too.    Marking is a constant struggle. It’s so time-consuming that we feel like the only way to get it all done is to take it home, but when we take it home we either leave it in a bag and forget about it, or we ditch our time with friends and family and spend our time working unpaid. Does that sound familiar?   

 

This episode is about how to strategically plan time for marking and set up conditions that allow you to get it done in a less time-consuming way. 

 

I’m sharing 6 tried-and-true strategies that I use to reduce the amount of marking I take home. 

 

If you want to spend more of your time at home with friends and family rather than buried under a pile of marking, this is for you. 

 

Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/219

 

Resources Mentioned:

Learn more about Ignited Math: www.madlylearning.com/ignitedmath

Learn more about Ignited Literacy: https://www.ignitedliteracy.com/IL2021SP

 

I would love to connect on Facebook: http://facebook.com/MadlyLearning

 

 I would love to connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madlylearning

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Do you consider yourself a lifelong learner? I feel like a lot of us get into teaching because we love to learn, and our guest on this episode is no exception. 

 

Celeste Kirsh is researching how teachers can learn new genres of writing. In this episode, she’s sharing some of her findings so far that could shake up the way we learn as writing teachers and how that relates to teaching middle school writing. 

 

Celeste understands the common obstacles that teachers face when it comes to teaching writing, and she believes in researching and finding better solutions. This episode is a great place for you to get inspired to learn more about your own teaching methods and new ways that you could approach teaching writing. If assessment is something that holds you back from trying new things in your writing classroom, she’s got you covered there too.  

 

Celeste Kirsh is a PhD student at The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto where she is studying critical literacies and writing instruction. She is a mother, a wife, a former middle school teacher, a runner, and a lover of words and hugs.

 

The way you teach writing is important. Tune in to find out how you could take your middle school writing classroom to the next level. 

 

Resources Mentioned:

Listen to The Teaching Tomorrow Podcast: https://cohort21.com/teachingtomorrow/ 

Follow Celeste on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teaching_tomorrow/ 

Follow Celeste on Twitter: https://twitter.com/teach_tomorrow 

 

I would love to connect on Facebook or Instagram!

Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/218

Remember to Subscribe for more insights on how to navigate the complexities of teaching with efficiency and impact. Share your experiences and strategies in the comments to join the conversation with fellow educators.

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Have you ever been questioned about how you teach math or why you teach certain strategies? Most of us have. 

 

In this episode, I’m continuing the discussion about new math and why we teach so many different strategies to help kids solve number problems. 

 

I’m specifically walking you through different ways to teach division because division is often the most challenging. We’re looking at different strategies, why we use them, and what order I would teach them in. I’m giving you examples of each strategy so that you can see exactly how I would teach them in my classroom. 

 

To get the most out of this episode, you might want to check out the video that goes with it on the Madly Learning YouTube Channel. There you’ll be able to see the division problems that I’m explaining on the screen and follow along. 

 

If you could use some help understanding all the ways we teach division in new math, this is for you. 

 

Resources Mentioned:

https://www.madlylearning.com/Ignitedmath

 

I would love to connect on Facebook or Instagram!

Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/217

Remember to Subscribe for more insights on how to navigate the complexities of teaching with efficiency and impact. Share your experiences and strategies in the comments to join the conversation with fellow educators.

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Have you ever questioned why you’re teaching so many different ways to do division and multiplication or even addition and subtraction?

 

Math these days requires us to teach a lot of different strategies for solving problems, and this can cause a lot of frustration to parents and teachers alike. I want to use this episode to explain why new math teaches kids so many different strategies and why I think it’s a good thing. 

 

The reality is that new math is not new. It teaches strategies that strong mathematicians have been using in their heads for a long time. However, it looks different from the way that we were taught math when we were younger. Most of us were taught that there’s one right way to solve each problem. Guess what? That’s why so many people think they're bad at math! 

 

This episode will help you understand the reasoning behind new math and teach you how to communicate with parents so that they can understand too. 

 

If you get frustrated by how many different math strategies you have to teach, this episode will help you out. 

 

Resources Mentioned:

www.madlylearning.com/ignitedmath

 

I would love to connect on Facebook or Instagram!

Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/216

Remember to Subscribe for more insights on how to navigate the complexities of teaching with efficiency and impact. Share your experiences and strategies in the comments to join the conversation with fellow educators.

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