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Latest from the Blog

A Lovely Way to Thank School Volunteers

I recently wrote about companies and organizations that honored teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week.  Teachers absolutely deserve attention for their hard work, not just during one special week but throughout the year and in as many forms as possible.  I’ve also written about telling custodians how much they are appreciated

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Education Around the World: Bulgaria

Eastern Europe is a part of the world I’ve always wanted to visit because that is my ethnic heritage.  My paternal grandmother emigrated from what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire and other relatives came from other countries, so I know a little about those places.  However, I have no experience

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Ideas to Help Your ELLs Avoid Summer Learning Loss

Schools nowadays often give reading and math assignments that students are required to do during their summer vacation.  My school in Massachusetts had lists of books for each grade level, starting at Grade 3, and students had to choose 2 books to read and then complete 2 of the tasks

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May #ELLEdTech Twitter Chat: Preventing Summer Slide

ELLs are probably more at risk of summer learning loss than other students if they don’t have sustained exposure to the English language during their summer vacations.  But what can teachers do to mitigate this?  Join Laurah and me this coming Sunday, May 21st, and find out about some Technology

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7 Technology Tools for ELLs Who are Newcomers

Yesterday in the #ELLEdTech chat, Laurah and I discussed technology tools for helping newcomers, which we defined as English Language Learners from other countries who have very low proficiency levels of English.  Teaching these students is challenging, especially if they arrive in the middle of the school year and it

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April #ELLEdTech Twitter Chat: Tech Tools for Newcomers

How does your school district define newcomer students?  Are they immigrants who don’t know any English?  Are they students from foreign countries who know some English already but are not yet proficient?  Do SLIFE (students with limited formal education) fit in this category or are they a separate group of

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How to Easily Create A QR Code Scavenger Hunt

I used QR codes in the classroom for the first time last week.  You might be asking: What took so long?  Well, for one thing, the school where I used to work didn’t allow students or teachers to use cellphones in class.  Now I’m no longer a classroom teacher so

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Education Around the World: British Columbia, Canada

This month, we’re returning to North America for the next post in this series.  An earlier post discussed the education system in the Francophone province of Quebec, in eastern Canada — as I’m sure you already know, Canada is a bilingual country — so now it’s time to find out

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11 Reasons You Really Need a School Garden

Today is the first day of Spring so I’d like to discuss school gardens.  I always wanted to have a school garden, and I found the perfect place for it, but it never happened, mainly because I just didn’t have the time to add such an undertaking to my schedule

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How to Help Your Muslim Students in the School Cafeteria

Just as English Language Learners in general don’t fit into one neat package, ELLs who are Muslim come from a variety of cultural and religious backgrounds.  Most Muslim boys and girls dress the same as typical American students, although some Muslim girls may wear a hijab (headscarf), and it is

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