Lately, there’s been a resurgence in the ”reading wars,” which is the term used to describe the dispute between supporters of a ”phonics” or ”phonemic awareness” method for teaching reading and those who instead promote a ”whole language” approach.  This war has been going on ever since 1955 when Rudolf Flesch wrote the best-selling book...Read More

Getting students’ attention in the classroom is one of the things that teachers have to do intermittently throughout the school day:  at the start of a class, at the end of an activity where students are working in groups, and at other times besides.  Some teachers are very good at this, commanding student attention through...Read More

I just read a very interesting article from EdSurge, an educational technology information online resource that focuses on the benefits of coding, describing how kids who have difficulty in other subjects can sometimes find hidden strengths in their ability to work with code.  The author Kimberly Rues, writes: ”In every classroom where I’ve given kids...Read More

When I was a kid I used to enjoy Mad Magazine, which I loved for many reasons, the irreverence, the hilarity, the satire, and more. One feature that I remember in particular involved cartoons that spelled out nonsense words as sound effects. For example:  ”Glomp!” “Flaaack!” ”Pffft!” ”Sproing!” (above – a page from Mad with...Read More

I always remember a radio ad that began:  ”People Judge You By the Words You Use” which promoted its own vocabulary development program. However, you don’t need to pay for an elaborate video or audio program or workbooks and texts.  Instead, here are eight simple ways that you can use to enlarge your vocabulary.  They...Read More