Celebrating the Art of Teaching, One Educator at a Time — We’ve been publishing educator stories through our guest blogging program, The Art of Teaching, for over seven years now. Educators from all over the country (even the world) have shared their perspectives on what makes teaching so deeply fulfilling despite the seemingly never-ending challenges. Now, we want to pause a…

We know from the Science of Reading that teaching that teaching foundational skills — like phonological awareness, decoding, and sight recognition — is one of the most important undertakings in any elementary classroom. However, teaching foundational reading skills can also be a big challenge, especially for educators who are new…

By Candace Pinn, Retired Educator and Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity (DEI) Consultant — Unlike in middle and high school, elementary academic subjects are integrated across the curriculum. However, even elementary schools compartmentalize math and language arts, providing “periods” in the school day, when teaching and learning are focused around these subjects only. The ever-changing nature of education, including daily schedules and new programs…

By Debbie Leslie, Director of Curriculum Development at UChicago STEM Education and Everyday Math Author — “Rigor” is a word we hear and use a lot in education, but do we have a shared understanding of what it looks like or means, especially in early childhood? What is a math activity or task that you would consider “rigorous” for young learners? What makes it rigorous? Do…

By Karen Achtman, Kids’ Yoga Teacher and Former Special Education Teacher — When people think of yoga, the first images that come to mind often are of different poses or someone sitting with their eyes closed meditating. So then, people wonder how kids can do yoga when they often can’t sit still for a long time. However, yoga is so much more…

A Conversation with Dr. Doug Fisher — The Science of Reading brought a great deal of attention to word recognition — but language comprehension deserves our time and thought, too. Brandon Harvey, Senior National Curriculum Specialist at McGraw Hill, recently had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Doug Fisher to talk about an important and often…

Celebrating the Art of Teaching, One Educator at a Time — We’ve been publishing educator stories through our guest blogging program, The Art of Teaching, for over seven years now. Educators from all over the country (even the world) have shared their perspectives on what makes teaching so deeply fulfilling despite the seemingly never-ending challenges. They’ve blogged about using AI to…

Welcome to the latest edition of the Stories that Inspired Us newsletter, where we take a look back at some stories that had a strong impact on us and our readers. This month, we’ve assembled a collection of stories all about PreK-12 math education, with a special focus on middle…

How Authentic Math Tasks Promote a Growth Mindset in Students — As an educator, you’ve heard it before: “I’m just not good at math,” or “I’m not a math person.” Perhaps you’ve even felt it in your confidence teaching math when you’re more comfortable with reading, science, and social studies lessons. But the truth is, every student is capable of excelling…