I think most of us remember learning about the Pygmalion Effect in our teacher education classes. Here’s a refresher in case you need it… Rosenthal and Jacobson originally described the Pygmalion Effect as the following: “When we expect certain behaviors of others, we are likely to act in ways that make the expected behavior more likely to occur.” (Rosenthal and Babad, 1985) In terms of teaching students who are multiple grade levels behind, I take this to mean: When we pass

Not only have I myself been a high school math intervention and Algebra 1 teacher at three Title 1 schools, but I’ve observed well over 1,000 secondary math classrooms in my work as a district math coach and my independent client work. I believe the following five qualities are needed every single day in our middle school and high school math classrooms in order to effectively reach each and every student. Quality #1: Collaboration Research: Promoting Student Collaboration

My first year of teaching went a little like this… Direct instruction, worksheet, homework. Students off task during worksheet time. No one did homework. Students continued failing district benchmark exams. I felt frustrated and over worked. My second year of teaching was a little different. My principal made all of us switch to rubric grading. It was almost standards based grading, but we could still use it with our unit assessments and then convert grades into percentages f

I personally feel the first week of school is the most important week of teaching. The community you create your first week will impact how students feel in your classroom all year long. This is especially true if you teach students with learning disabilities in math or students who struggle with math. We cannot use math strategies for struggling learners until our classroom community has been intentionally created first. Continue reading to find four reasons why classroom cu