Formative Assessment - Stop Light method

Hey, the video is only about 50 seconds long, but could change the way you teach. Take a look.

Using Talk Moves

This video is about using Talk Moves to help students stay on task. So often, students check out when someone talks or goes to the board because they will not be held accountable for the information. But what if they were? Simple things, like asking students to restate what was said, to explain their understanding, etc. helps students feel accountable and can increase participation (and therefore retention).

New Whiteboard App - Show Me

Now that Educreations has decided to charge for its services (to the tune of about $100/year), I am switching to Show Me. Show me is similar to Educreations, and is a free app with unlimited storage. Educreations still has a free version, but many of the previously free features (such as unlimited storage) are now only available in the paid version.

Below is a first attempt at using Show Me. As you can see, it looks similar to Educreations.


While Show Me does not have as many features as Educreations, it appears to be a solid app. I like that I can import PDFs or other formats as a background, and can have several pages set up ahead and scroll through them as needed. I also like that I can explore topics and find things that I might be able to use in the classroom.

Here is an example of a video found on their site that teaches about solving 1 and 2 step equations. These can be embedded on a site as below, or you can link to them.


Thanks, Show Me!

Math Resources - Share My Lesson

Order of Operations - Good reviews and comments. Everything from Special Ed to 8th grade teachers.

Quadratic Equations - 8th Grade might want to save for end of the year.

Common Core index

Learning Style Inventory

Click here to go to a site where you can find a Learning Style Inventory.

Whole Brain Videos - Middle School

Here are some Whole Brain videos for a Middle School setting.









Whole Brain Teaching - Chris Biffle's You-Tube page for more videos.

Instructional Guidance from the DOE

This is a very important document from the DOE. It takes each current Indiana College and Career Readiness Standard and lets you know how important that standard is for the coming ISTEP test.

6th Grade: (Page 6)

7th Grade: (Page 7)

8th Grade: (Page 8)

See the entire document here.

Have you seen it yet?

Have you had a chance to visit Kristal McCorkle's classroom yet? It is a wonderful job of creating in inviting learning environment!

Stop telling kids they are smart??? - Article by Sal Khan

Here are some interesting snippets from an article by Sal Khan titles, "The Learning Myth: Why I'll Never Tell My Son He's Smart."The Learning Myth: Why I'll Never Tell My Son He's Smart"
that can be found here.

My 5-year-­old son has just started reading. Every night, we lie on his bed and he reads a short book to me. Inevitably, he’ll hit a word that he has trouble with: last night the word was “gratefully.” He eventually got it after a fairly painful minute. He then said, “Dad, aren’t you glad how I struggled with that word? I think I could feel my brain growing.” I smiled: my son was now verbalizing the tell­-tale signs of a “growth­ mindset.” But this wasn’t by accident. Recently, I put into practice research I had been reading about for the past few years: I decided to praise my son not when he succeeded at things he was already good at, but when he persevered with things that he found difficult. I stressed to him that by struggling, your brain grows. Between the deep body of research on the field of learning mindsets and this personal experience with my son, I am more convinced than ever that mindsets toward learning could matter more than anything else we teach.

Researchers have known for some time that the brain is like a muscle; that the more you use it, the more it grows. They’ve found that neural connections form and deepen most when we make mistakes doing difficult tasks rather than repeatedly having success with easy ones.

For instance, praising someone’s process (“I really like how you struggled with that problem”) versus praising an innate trait or talent (“You’re so clever!”) is one way to reinforce a growth ­mindset with someone. Process­ praise acknowledges the effort; talent­ praise reinforces the notion that one only succeeds (or doesn’t) based on a fixed trait.

I see this as a part of the shift we need to make, teaching for understanding rather than teaching for success. Teaching a depth of knowledge rather than one strategy or method that gives a correct answer but doesn't easily transfer in real-world situations.

Having Trouble Viewing This Site?

As I went to check something on the blog this morning, I noticed that several of the images were not displaying. In order to see them, I had to log on to the new corporate web filter. Just thought I would give you a heads up.