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Unleashing Classroom Excitement: Fantasy Football & Esports Transform K-12 Education
In the fall of 2016 and spring of 2017, I incorporated fantasy football and esports into my English Language Arts class to enhance student engagement. These activities served as reading comprehension tools and provided project-based learning opportunities. Fantasy sports and esports are two of the most popular hobbies in the world, and they are now…
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The Story of Two Best Friends: Student Engagement and School Belonging
“Student engagement” is a commonly used term and a goal shared across all education levels. With so many variables involved, it can be challenging to prioritize the most important factors of what cultivates students to be engaged as often as possible in our classrooms. In an attempt to prioritize, we might wonder what factors need…
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How to Connect Verbal and Visual Worlds to Benefits Student Academic Success
Are you looking for a way to help your students retain information better and increase their comprehension of different content areas? Sketchnoting is the answer! It’s a powerful visual tool that helps students connect verbal and visual information, leading to improved comprehension and retention. Sketchnoting is an effective way to help students gain a deeper…
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MDE’s Promising Practice: Improving Early Literacy Achievement with Ignite Engagement
Our educational world is in a state of restoration and renewal, where the potential for renovation exists. What we decide to do with this opportunity will tremendously impact the lives of our students. Students Need Authentic Engagement In an article by Andy Hargreaves titled “The Future of Learning Lies in Engagement,” he encourages educators to…
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Everything You Need to Celebrate Black History Month Beyond February
“The great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do. It could scarcely be otherwise, since it is to history that we owe our frames of reference, our identities, and our aspirations.”…
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20+ Best Gift Ideas to Engage Children in STEM Learning
There are many STEM related gifts that allow kids to have fun while engaging in career-centered learning. Based on authentic and popular trends with STEM education we have three focus categories: prototyping, computer science, and building curiosity within content.
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Top 10 Reasons to Learn to Teach Creatively
Teachers who frequently assign classwork involving creativity are more likely to observe higher-order cognitive skills — problem solving, critical thinking, making connections between subjects — in their students. And when teachers combine creativity with transformative technology use, they see even better outcomes. (Krueger, 2021) As education professionals, we know that professional learning is required. The…
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Increase Productivity in Your Classroom with “Ed Tech or Treat” in October!
It’s almost October, which means this is the time of year when many educators are looking for ways to increase productivity by improving engagement, social emotional learning, equity, and maybe even integrating computational skills. So, what is a good way to implement these improvements? Through technology! “Technology can be a powerful tool for transforming learning.…
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3 Signs That Your Students are NOT Engaged
Written by Diane Titche, Kent ISD Early Literacy Coach As educators we are always striving to engage our students in their learning. But what exactly does it mean to have engaged students? When you step back to observe your students and see the work they have produced, how can you tell if they are truly…
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How to Build a Diverse Classroom Library
Written by: Sommer Jabbar, Kent ISD Project Coordinator of Equity and Student Success Building a diverse classroom library may feel like an overwhelming task, however, there are so many resources and tips available to help! Below you will find some guidelines for building a diverse classroom library and the importance of doing so!