Back to School Ideas for Upper Elementary Teachers

Are you an upper elementary teacher planning for the first week of school?  This time of the year always stirs a wide variety of emotions for both students and teachers.  It is normal to feel a mixture of excitement and anxiety.  As teachers, we want to be well-prepared and ready to welcome our new group of learners.  That begins with careful creation of a welcoming and fun environment for your young scholars.  But creating a positive learning atmosphere goes much deeper than hanging up a bunch of cute banners, posters, and classroom decor.  More important than the way a room looks is how it

5 Tips and Tricks to Teach Counting Coins

Teaching kindergarteners and 1st graders money can be tricky!  In today’s world it seems like we mostly use digital forms of money and we rely less and less on cash in our everyday lives.  This makes teaching money more abstract than ever before!  Here are a few tricks to help ease the process of teaching money.

1.  Focus on Skip Counting before Teaching Money

Counting money is all about skip counting by 5's, 10's, and 25's.  Make sure your students have

It's Time to Stop Posting Classroom Progress Charts

As you plan and design your classroom environment for the next school year, please take a moment to reconsider posting classroom displays of student math progress.  In my opinion, these charts do more harm than good.  Students that need more time to master the concepts become humiliated and embarrassed when their names are not moving up the progress chart at the same rate as their classmates.  This can have a long-lasting negative impact on their learning.  I am not against progress charts, but I am against public displays of these records.