Middle school is a critical time for students, particularly those in high poverty schools. The stats are stark: by 4th grade, students in low-income communities are 2-3 grades behind higher-income peers; graduating seniors in low-income communities average 8th-grade achievement levels compared to higher-income peers. Lots of things go wrong in middle school: puberty, friends, music,… Read more »
Posts Tagged: education
The Areas of Our Expertise (30 Days of Creativity, Day 28)
When I told the colleagues and contributors I used to work with through Science Progress that I was leaving my job to teach, they’d usually assume that I was headed to a science classroom. “I wish,” I’d say, “But I only took one science class in college. I’m not qualified.” I love science, science journalism,… Read more »
ShowMe Text Features (30 Days of Creativity, Day 27)
So a few weeks ago, I got invited to beta text a nifty little iPad app called ShowMe. The developers bill it as the pathway to creating your own Khan Academy. And indeed, the functionality is deceptively simple. Essentially, ShowMe records screencasts of you drawing on an iPad whiteboard–along with your synchronized narrative. You write… Read more »
Bad Jokes for Distracting Middle Schoolers
Sometimes middle schoolers get really wound up, and there’s nothing rational you can say to them to calm them down. Distracting them with really awful jokes works for derailing arguments from time to time. To whit: green_four_wheels A social studies teacher taught me that one.
Hi, I'm Andrew Plemmons Pratt. I am the Program Manager for New Classrooms in Washington, DC. (Though opinions expressed on this site are entirely my own.) I taught 7th-grade English in Prince George’s County, Maryland as a member of the 2010 Teach For America corps. I write about literacy & edtech here—along with stuff like industrial archeology and bread baking.