Digital Citizenship 101
Have you heard? School districts around the country are going 1:1! Are you ready? Of course you are! The times of projecting powerpoint slides on the front board are over. Interactive boards are no longer the next new thing. “Put your phones away” is a saying considered unacceptable in some parts. You’ve made it through all of these movements. As times change, we must adjust. Contrary to popular beliefs, while the tools we use have changed, the way we deliver our instruction has not. [...]
Teacher Hub: Effective Planning
Assemblies, field trips, extracurriculars, pep rallies – there is always something getting in the way of a full week of instruction. Education increasingly becomes more demanding on all stakeholders. Back to school nights have come and gone, and we are going to be approaching parent-teacher conferences before you know it! Teachers are overwhelmed with the latest and greatest initiatives, parent meetings, and administrative walk throughs and observations. How do educators keep it together every week?! Well, the best educators do so through effectively planning each and every week. [...]
Back to School: 5 Questions to Ask Yourself
We ask our students the basic “back to school questions” every year. What did you do this summer? Did you read any books? What are you looking forward to this year? We ask these questions to get to know our students and to help our students practice reflection. But what about you? Are you returning rejuvenated? Have you reflected and set goals? We are so busy focusing on our students, that we often forget to provide “in-filling” for ourselves. Therefore, before you walk into school on that crisp August or September morning, ask yourself these questions. [...]
Tech Boost! 3 Websites to Increase Student Engagement
The weather is beautiful, students broke out the shorts and everyone is counting down to the end of the year. How do we keep our students interested? Teachers are not only tasked with prepping for the state test, but also for end-of-year testing. The pressure is on, but where is the time? For a quick way to change things up in your classroom, check out these websites! Let us know what works best for you! [...]
Teacher Hub: Presidents’ Day Plans
Whether students have the day off or not, we can all engage our students in valuable lessons related to Presidents’ Day. Especially during the current political climate, it is important to not only teach our students about our history, but also about how to appropriately engage in discourse. Check out our suggestions to observe Presidents’ Day. How are you planning on impacting your students? [...]
Planbook Plus Demo Day: Real Life Application
Planbook Plus continues to give educators the tools to plan for a highly engaged classroom. Planbook Plus is suitable for any subject ranging from Pre K to high-level calculus. Tools of the trade to create a highly engaged classroom range from using humor in the classroom, playing to student interests and applying the lessons learned to real life. Math class poses challenges when it comes to creating a highly engaged classroom. “When will I ever use this?” “How does this apply to me?” Sound familiar? Real life applications to math lessons help put the lesson into perspective for our students.
Take correlation. Correlation for many students is a bunch of dots on a graph. For math-challenged students, it is guessing “yes or no” and “strong or weak.” However, it doesn’t have to be that overwhelming for students. Check out or “demo lesson” on determining human wingspan and height. Feel free to adapt to your needs! [...]
Teacher Hub: 5 Lessons for MLK Observance
As we approach the observance of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., educators must create plans that challenge all students’ current thinking with the goal of diversity and learning from history. This is a challenge. Simply popping in a movie for students to view and reflect on will not engage students. Unfortunately, mid-terms, state [...]
Planbook Plus Teacher Hub: Top Ten Apps & Websites in Education
The amount of technology in the field of education leaves most regular and special education teachers overwhelmed with choices and the task of checking out individual apps and websites until they find one that is useful. Fear not! The apps and websites featured below are special education and regular education teacher tested and approved! Additionally, Planbook Plus’ [...]
Goals For Your Classroom
You made it! Another fall semester is in the books and you can now enjoy your winter break. Hopefully you can go into this time off feeling accomplished. Everyone sets goals for themselves and their respective workplaces and your classroom was probably no different.
I’d wager some of your goals touched on these ideas: [...]
Four Fun Post-Winter Break Activities and Tips
After a busy weekend, Mondays can be a struggle. So just imagine how hard the Monday after winter break will be! A prepared teacher will have those first days after holiday break planned. Planbook Plus has put together some ideas for educators for the opening week of 2017! [...]