Edutopia

Cultivating Effortful Thinking With the Warm Demander Approach Combining strong relationships with clear expectations means teachers can create classrooms where every student feels supported—and accountable for sharing their thinking.

Striking that delicate balance between consistency and compassion is not easy—but the warm demander approach can help you find the right mix. ☺️

#ClassroomManagement #EduSky

Teaching History as a Skills-Based Discipline Students may associate history class with memorizing dates, but they should be learning the skills of evidence collection and analysis.

History teachers “have an opportunity to teach students the actual skills historians use,” Alison Beattie writes. “In math, students learn the skills that mathematicians use. In science, they learn the skills that scientists use. So why should history be any different?” 📜

#HistoryEducation

How to Accurately Document Preschool Students’ Growth Young students may repeatedly show progress and regression in skill development, and capturing their learning amid this variability is a challenge.

Trauma-informed documentation allows educators to meet accountability standards while offering a more accurate representation of learning.

Here’s what it looks like in practice. ⬇️

#PreK #preschool

Just Like Phonics, Comprehension Requires Explicit Teaching Once students can decode, they need ongoing and thoughtful instruction to understand, interpret, and engage with what they read.

Teachers, how do you guide readers to power through? Share tips here ⬇️

For more classroom-tested strategies and research insights, read the full feature by Andrew Boryga: edut.to/4czTuMm

7/7 #EduSky

Teachers might wonder aloud:

🤔 What’s happening in the story that can help me understand what this word might mean?

🤔 What clues do the pictures or nearby sentences give me?

Encouraging reasonable guesses about a word’s meaning can help students get unstuck and keep reading.

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Is new vocab tripping readers up? Rereading can help there too.

Research shows that when students don’t understand key words, central themes and what’s happening in a text can be lost.

Researcher Timothy Shanahan suggests that teachers pause and model how to navigate tricky vocab aloud.

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During a read-aloud, a teacher might say:

🤔 “Hmm, I’m not sure why she’s sad here. I’m going to reread the last few sentences and look for a clue about what happened.”

This shows students that strong reading means stopping to repair understanding.

4/7 #LanguageArts

5 Ways to Support Students Who Struggle With Reading Comprehension These strategies can help students who are able to decode well but have difficulty understanding what they read—and they’re beneficial for all students.

Rereading is an essential tool for all resilient learners.

Parrish recommends modeling what it looks like to pause and reread when a text doesn’t make sense.

3/7 #K12 #ELA

All readers get confused sometimes.

Pages flip by without comprehension. Unfamiliar words create stumbles. The meaning of a story can baffle even the most curious students.

In those moments, kids need clear strategies to get back on track and keep going, says literacy specialist Nina Parrish.

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Just Like Phonics, Comprehension Requires Explicit Teaching Once students can decode, they need ongoing and thoughtful instruction to understand, interpret, and engage with what they read.

In the elementary grades, even fluent readers hit moments when meaning falls apart.

In this article, Edutopia senior editor Andrew Boryga unpacks a key idea: Comprehension, like phonics and decoding, requires direct instruction.

Here’s one place to start.

🧵1/7 #EduSky

Illustrated classroom floor plan titled “Room Layout.” Individual desks and chairs (shown separately) form rows around the perimeter and middle of the room. Cabinets line the left wall beside the door. Three rectangular tables sit in the center. At the front of the room are a podium and a whiteboard with bookshelves underneath. A note indicates that desks and chairs can be separated.

Diagram labeled “Caves” showing the same classroom layout with red arrows indicating students turning desks inward or toward walls to create individual, quiet workspaces. Desks face away from others to emphasize independent work areas.

Diagram labeled “Watering Holes” showing desks turned toward nearby classmates in small clusters. Red arrows indicate students facing one another in pairs or small groups to encourage collaboration and discussion.

Diagram labeled “Campfires” showing desks arranged in circles around tables and shared spaces. Red arrows indicate students facing inward toward group centers or the front teaching area, supporting group discussion or whole-class instruction.

Every time we publish an article on room layouts, everyone asks for pictures. Not this time—they’re already here!

@mrrablin.bsky.social left an admin “baffled,” but this layout really works. 🙌

Read the article for more info: https://edut.to/4bsh9gC

Making Instructional Coaching Standard for Every Teacher Instructional coaching works best when it is normalized as part of everyday professional life, not positioned as a corrective measure.

“In our experience, coaching works best when it is normalized as part of everyday professional life, not positioned as a corrective measure.”

Here’s how schools can reframe instructional coaching as collaborative problem-solving. 🤝

#InstructionalCoach #EduSky

In High-Performing Math Classrooms, Words Matter Math vocabulary alone isn’t a silver bullet—but research shows it’s linked to stronger academic achievement when paired with expert teaching practices.

A new study of 1,600 math lessons found that classrooms using more precise math language saw stronger student gains. 📈 Here are simple ways teachers can build that vocabulary into daily instruction.

#MathSky #ITeachMath

How do you collect IEP data without drowning? Progress monitoring IEP goals is essential, but it can also feel like a constant juggling act. Between multiple students with multiple goals, different service minutes and settings, and the…

New question from Edutopia community facilitator Gloria Sevilla! Drop into our community forum to join the conversation 👇

#SpecialEducation #EduSky

🙃

😩

Hi there, Mae! We'd love to know what your key takeaways are once you do!

How to Co-create a Rubric With Elementary Students Teachers can include students in the process of designing a tool to measure their understanding of content—an additional learning opportunity.

Excited to present my second article for @edutopia.org exploring how teachers can include students in the process of designing a tool to measure their understanding of content and how to use this process as an additional learning opportunity.
@scottrocco.bsky.social
www.edutopia.org/article/elem...

Graphic titled “12 Ways to Activate Your Students’ Prior Knowledge.” The image lists four strategies: 1) Draw concept maps (with a map icon), 2) Adopt a different point of view, 3) Try a bait-and-switch quiz, and 4) Read children’s books (with a book icon). A note at the bottom reads: “Read the article to get 8 more strategies—and learn how to use these ones!”

12 strategies: https://edut.to/4aV12Iq

#EduSky

Post from Elizabeth Fletcher: My daughter is in her school spelling bee & I assured her that, for the rest of her life, she’ll know how to spell the word that takes her out. (“picnicking” 1981-82)

What was your word? 🐝

How to Create a Crisis Handbook to Prepare Your School for Emergencies As a school leader, you can’t anticipate when a disaster may happen, but you can develop systems to help ensure that your staff and families are prepared.

As a school leader, you can’t anticipate when a crisis may happen, but you can create systems to ensure your school is prepared. Learn how a crisis handbook and crisis communication plan can help.

#SchoolLeaders #Principals #EduSky

What to Do When Students Reject Their Accommodations When students who need supports refuse to use them, the cause is generally not lack of motivation—it’s the sense of stigma attached to accepting help.

When students refuse to use their accommodations, it can feel frustrating for educators. But, it often isn’t just a lack of motivation or defiance. These 5 strategies can help teachers better understand and support students in these moments. ⬇️

#SpecialEducation #SEL #EduSky

What Works For Me! “Yesterday, I made a student the leader of the class, and it was their job to quiet everyone down. Turns out, classmates listen to classmates more than they listen to the teacher.” —Linda Garrett, Teacher

What are your favorite strategies for quieting down your class?

#WhatWorksForMe #EduSky

A 3-Step Strategy for Addressing Difficult Situations With Parents Administrators can resolve complicated issues by holding an information-gathering meeting, conducting an investigation, and then circling back to parents.

Administrators: Instead of rushing to talk with upset parents, try this 3-part strategy to help you address difficult situations with calm and poise.

#SchoolLeaders #Principals

An Unconventional Seating Plan Designed to Benefit Focus and Learning After years of search and experimentation, this teacher finally hit on a room layout that allowed for efficient shifting between whole class, small group, and independent work.

And have to share two @edutopia.org posts in a row because this one from @mrrablin.bsky.social is SO cool! I have never seen this seating-arrangement strategy before.

www.edutopia.org/article/clas...

Bill has some great ideas for integrating SEL in music class in this new @edutopia.org article! www.edutopia.org/article/sel-...

Amidst pretty muddy waters right now with AI usage by teachers and educators, I feel like a lot of good could be done by just talking more with each other about what we're doing and why—and these 3 questions, I think, would be a good starting point.

Real, Fake, or Deepfake? This Lesson Helps Students Decide Students examine videos and online information to investigate what is real and what is not in this engaging lesson.

In this engaging lesson, students examine videos and online information to investigate what’s real—and what’s not. 🔎

Here are all the resources you need to use it in your class!

#MediaLiteracy #EduSky

What Worries Me About Teachers’ Use of AI A high school teacher reflects on how adult choices around AI use—particularly their approaches to transparency and focus on efficiency—can affect classroom culture.

3 thought-provoking questions for educators about how they use and discuss AI in their work. 🖥️👇

HS teacher @marcusluther.bsky.social considers transparency, norms, and the focus on efficiency as topics needing discussion.

#EduSkyAI #EduSky

“My 5-year-old explained to me that it's okay when she makes a mistake because she’s growing the neurons in her brain. I just want to hug her teacher.” —Erin Brisbin, Teacher