Technology in the Classroom: Campuseek App Review

Campuseek will help you organize your thoughts immensely when you’re looking for the right college.
For more great educational reviews targeted for both teachers and students, download your free issues of TeachHUB Magazine. 
Get our Campuseek review>>
10 Teaching Strategies to Improve Writing
Written communication is perhaps the important cornerstone of contemporary education. Teachers cannot emphasize enough the importance of students being able to demonstrate what they have learned via the written word.
Yet oftentimes, teachers her the common refrain of, “I can’t think of anything to write!”
Today on TeachHUB.com, writer, educator and frequent TeachHUB.com contributor Janelle Cox offers up some helpful teaching strategies to make writing interesting and fun for all ages of learners, including:
•    Peer talks
•    Audio transcription
•    Story starters
•    And more
How do you get your students writing? Do you have any tips or tricks that you would like to share?
Get our teaching strategies to improve writing>>
50 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom
In this day and age, it’s imperative that teachers use every tool at their disposal to educate their classes. And Twitter is the perfect technology in the classroom tool for educators to keep their students engaged.
Some examples:
•    Track a #hasthtag
•    Live Tweet field trips
•    Role play
•    And more
Do you know how to use twitter in the classroom?

Teaching Strategies to Deal with Disrespectful Parents

It’s a problem as old as education itself: The Perennial Problem Parent. Each year, it seems, we need to use inventive teaching strategies to deal with an unreasonable parent.

But with a little forethought, you can overcome this issue. Today on TeachHUB.com, frequent contributing writer Janelle Cox, herself a veteran elementary educator based in Upstate New York, shines some original teaching strategies on handling problem parents with grace and respect.

Janelle’s ideas include:

  • Don’t get caught off guard
  • Back up all of your claims with facts
  • Try and be sensitive
  • And more!


Janelle sums up her article like this: “Managing disrespectful, difficult parents is probably not what you thought you signed up for when you went into teaching. However, it’s unfortunately part of the job. Instead of dwelling on how a parent may perceive you or what you could have done differently, acknowledge that you have done the best that you could and offer the parent a chance at a partnership so that their child can have a wonderful school year.”

Have you ever had to deal with a difficult or disrespectful parent before? If so, how did you handle it? Please share your stories with us. Your story may help out a fellow educator.

Get our teaching strategies on dealing with disrespectful parents>>
10 Things to Know Before Becoming a Teacher
Perhaps you’re drawn to the academic profession by summers off, or by the thought of a standard routine each year.
There’s a LOT more to academics than that. You need to be committed to helping your students learn above all, but you also have to contend with tricky entities like parents and more.
Learn what you need to know before becoming a teacher >>
How Parents Can Prepare for Back to School Time
In our ongoing series about planning for going back to school, today we examine the ways in which all moms and dads can get ready for the inevitable – the first day of school.
It’s a stressful time for kids and parents alike, but with our guide on how to prepare, teachers and family members alike can get themselves ready for the yearly ritual. Going back to school can be rough, but with our tips, you’ll be a little more prepared for what’s coming.

Professional Development: Alternative Careers for Teachers

For a variety of reasons, people with teaching degrees often don’t go into the teaching field, or leave it at a certain time. Maybe it’s difficult to find a job, perhaps budget cuts have eliminated their roles, or teacher burnout has reared its ugly head once again.

No matter what has happened, teacher sometimes find themselves seeking out new positions. With that in mind, today’s centerpiece article on TeachHUB.com addresses alternative careers for educators and what they might be. Janelle Cox, a frequent TeachHUB.com (and TeachHUB Magazine) contributing writer and a seasoned educator on the East Coast, outlines some ideas for those seeking other types of jobs. Her ideas include:
  • Librarian/Media Specialist
  • Health Educator
  • GED Teacher
  • And More!

Janelle sum up her article like this, in a paragraph entitled, “School Administrator”: “As a school administrator, your job is to be the head of the school. If you are a natural born leader and love to be in charge, this is a great option for you. However, in order to have this type of career, you will need a master’s degree in education administration.”

What do you think of these alternative career options? Did we leave any out?

Get our ideas on using professional development to your career advancement in 
fields other than teaching>>

Teaching Strategies Using the Sunday Comics

Teachers take note: The Sunday comics, those humor-tinged, drawing-based inserts in every Sunday newspaper, can be wonderful teaching strategies!
The comics’ fun illustrations and humorous story lines can draw in even the most reluctant of readers.
Today on TeachHUB.com, frequent contributing writer Janelle Cox, herself a seasoned educator, extols the virtues of the anachronistic comic strip, and offers up ways that teachers can use comic strips to liven up a language arts class. Janelle’s ideas include:
•    Improve Sequence Skills with Comic Strips
•    Change the Dialogue in a Comic Strip
•    Create a New Comic Strip
•    And More!
You can even have students create their own comic strips that illustrate important events throughout history, for instance the first man on the moon or the Emancipation Proclamation.
Do you have any fun ways to teach with comic strips?

The Bad Teacher Debate: Losing Labels in Education

A recent quote posted on TeachHUB sparked a thoughtful commentary on how labeling teachers as “good” or “bad” doesn’t solves anything or bring us closer to resolutions that help our teachers, our students, or our schools.

Education blogger Steve Moore shares his response to this quote:

“Good teachers are costly, but bad teachers cost more.” Bob Talbert

After reading this quote, I felt a jab not because I see myself as a defender

of “bad” teachers, but of language and rhetoric. I think the way we frame our discussions about teaching, education, and success in those areas is directly related to what we will see come to pass.

Any time I hear a person debase or celebrate teachers, I try to find a way to understand what exactly they are speaking to. The “good” as well as “bad” is deceiving.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Sneak Peek: Finding Superman Excerpt

Waiting for Superman shined a national spotlight on the major problems facing education while painting a bleak picture of public education and glorified charter schools.

The upcoming book Finding Superman reveals the reality behind the claims in Waiting for Superman and explores the untold stories missed by the film with the help of today\’s leading minds in education. Dr. Watson Scott Swail and company also recognize the flourishing public schools, the failing charter schools, and the unlauded success stories of educators.

This chapter of Finding Superman\’s shares ways to stop waiting for Superman and find him in our schools.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Teacher Spring Cleaning Guide

While “education” and “reform” may have become dirty words, you can reform your classroom into a sparkling, spic-and-span wonderland with a little spring cleaning.

Spring cleaning can encompass many things, including:

*literally cleaning out the dirt and clutter that has accumulated over the school year
*welcoming in the new season indoors, outdoors and in your lessons
*remembering and rethinking goals for the year that get lost in the day to day

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Top 10 Teacher Facts That\’ll Make You Proud

With public education currently under attack from many different sides, it is important that we as educators, become advocates for our profession. We need to arm ourselves with the facts, with why we should be proud of what we do, and how well we do it.

With that in mind, here is a list of ten interesting facts that teachers should be proud of. Read them for yourself…and then share them with everyone you know!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Top 10 Teacher Facts That\’ll Make You Proud

With public education currently under attack from many different sides, it is important that we as educators, become advocates for our profession. We need to arm ourselves with the facts, with why we should be proud of what we do, and how well we do it.

With that in mind, here is a list of ten interesting facts that teachers should be proud of. Read them for yourself…and then share them with everyone you know!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Using Movies to Increase Student Learning

In past English classrooms, students often looked forward to the end of literature units. Once the final test was over, they knew the teacher would bring in the video version of the book – giving students a two day break to sleep, pass notes to friends, finish homework for other classes, or maybe (just maybe) compare and contrast the movie with the novel.

I have found film versions of novels to be incredibly useful in teaching literature units. By using films in a different way than we might have used them in the past, we can change their status from “fun reward with little meaning” to “incredibly beneficial tool with many uses.”

Here are my classroom movie strategies to increase student learning:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Top 10 Teacher Facts That\’ll Make You Proud

With public education currently under attack from many different sides, it is important that we as educators, become advocates for our profession. We need to arm ourselves with the facts, with why we should be proud of what we do, and how well we do it.

With that in mind, here is a list of ten interesting facts that teachers should be proud of. Read them for yourself…and then share them with everyone you know!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Science Fair Video Guide for Students

Science Fair Tips for Students

Created by high school student Kevin Temmer, this animated video is an excellent way to get students ready to complete a science fair project. The 15-minute video is a super student-friendly, step-by-step guide to science experiments that will ease science fair stress for students of all ages.

Based on this video, here\’s a text guide that you can also share with students.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1