WeAreTeachers Blog

Dystopian literature is hot.

In the school media center where I volunteer one morning each week, books like The Hunger Games trilogy fly off the shelves. The waiting list for each of the books in the series numbers into the double digits, and students are constantly checking in to see if a copy has been returned early. Ditto for the City of Ember series, The Giver, Unwind, and The Maze Runner trilogy. While classics such as Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, and Lord of the Flies are less popular, we’ve still seen a noticeable uptick in the number of copies circulating this year. What’s the big deal with dystopian novels?

CompassLearning recently asked educators, “What challenges do you face as you try to differentiate instruction to meet each of your student's needs?” and “What solutions would you like to to see implemented in your classroom and at your school in order to help you better differentiate?”

Explore this special edition of the WAT Book Club, in which we've chosen 20 brand-new books that are just right for summer reading. 

Mobile tablets are one of the most innovative and versatile tech tools to come on the market in recent years, and their application to teaching and learning has made quick inroads in schools. It’s been just over two years since the first generation of iPads became available to consumers, and an entire industry has developed around the technology – much of it focused on education. While still prohibitively expensive for many public schools, other schools have been quick to adopt iPads and integrate them into the curriculum. Aside from being light, portable, and snazzy, just what types of benefits do tablets offer over laptops, desktops, and e-books?

It seems like every time we talk with teachers about their classroom libraries, someone says “I need more recommendations for my boys!” We hear you. Finding the right book to engage ANY reader can be difficult, and boys especially can lack reading role models and exposure to genres and subjects that pique their interests. Of course, many “boy” books will work for your girls and vice versa, but here are a few recent titles that we’re recommending to the male readers in our lives.

Teachers, we think you deserve more than a day or week of thanks for everything you do. Frankly, we’re in awe of the long hours and hard work most teachers devote to their careers. At WeAreTeachers, our mission is to support your efforts every day, and that’s why we’re throwing an extended Teacher Appreciation celebration for the entire month of May. We wish we could throw you all an in-person fiesta, but click below to take part in the virtual fun!

In our financial climate, it's clear that many people have not learned ways to help them to save money. Help your students to become the exception by giving them the tools they need to become savers early on. Here are 10 simple ideas.

Have you ever heard of flip teaching? The idea is so simple it’s brilliant. In a flipped classroom, students watch videos, listen to podcasts, and do background reading outside of class so that the actual time with the teacher can be spent in meaningful discussion, doing collaborative work, and trying hands-on projects instead of listening to lectures. Here are five can’t-miss resources for planning your own flipped lessons.

Each May, the nation celebrates National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. Across the country, physical education teachers, fitness instructors, coaches, nutritionists, and others concerned with human health and wellness promote the advantages of physical exercise. The benefits of proper exercise and nutrition are well known for both older people as well as for children, and the month-long awareness campaign prompts many people to make healthy lifestyle changes. An offshoot of the campaign is National Physical Education and Sport Week on May 1-7, which focuses on physical education and activity for K-12 students.

In your efforts to turn students into lifelong readers, why not turn to stories that celebrate reading itself? In these five recent titles, books take center stage, sending the message that through reading, anything is possible.  

Teaching teens about money skills such as saving, budgeting, and setting financial goals gives them the tools they need to make smart decisions now and in the future. And, since financial education is essential to them reaching their personal goals, it's essential that all teachers find ways to integrate discussions about money into the classroom. Here are 5 ways that you can teach personal finance in classes across the curriculum.

If there’s one thing we know about teaching, it’s that very few people know what it’s like to work with 20 (okay, 35) students, day in and day out, in an attempt to meet a long list of individual and corporate educational goals. Simple, right? So some people call teaching glorified babysitting. Others repeat that irksome phrase “Those who can, do, and those who can’t…” (Ugh, we can’t even bring ourselves to finish that one.) That’s why, in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week (May 7–11), we’re offering seven comebacks to the craziest things people say to teachers. Next time you get hit with one of these beauties, we hope you’ll be prepared!

Interactive whiteboards provide myriad opportunities for your students—and one that's often overlooked is independent or small group instruction. Using interactive technology on a smaller scale is a great way to allow students to interact on the material in a personal way that's efficient, effective and—you guessed it—interactive. Here are five ideas.

Last spring, I volunteered in a third grade class that was learning about the digestive system. The teacher took advantage of a warm, sunny afternoon and took her restless students outside to make chalk outlines of their partners, and draw in as many different types of body systems as they could. Most students nailed the digestive and respiratory systems, while the circulatory systems on most outlines were wildly imaginative affairs, with great swirls and loops throughout the bodies.

The students knew that their circulatory systems were likely inaccurate, but they had fun trying anyway, all the while trying to puzzle out just how that particular system worked. "So much stuff in there," one girl sighed, and she was right: there is a lot of stuff in the human body, which is why it’s such a great topic for students of all ages. There’s always something new to learn.

Good news teacher friends! WAT Book Club is moving to Fridays. Isn’t book sharing the perfect way to end the week? We think so! Because we’ve been gearing up nonstop for Teacher Appreciation Week (May 7–11), today we’re featuring three books that celebrate the hard work you do. Share them with your class—and with your colleagues. They’ll be sure to make you smile.

Do you remember the days when watching a video in class meant rolling in a giant TV cart, turning down the lights, and crossing your fingers that no one fell asleep? Now, through exciting portals such as BrainPOP, video has gone online, become more interactive, and is always at students’ fingertips with the help of mobile devices such as smartphones, Slates, and netbooks. Here are four of our favorite ways to integrate video throughout the day:

Thinking students do a whole lot more than simply memorizing a list or contemplating facts. Thinking students figure out answers for themselves. They reflect on concepts. And they think critically and creatively. Thinking Teachers®— model critical and reflective thinking every day, so their classrooms and students are steeped in thinking. Here are five ideas on how you can teach in a way that makes thinking a central priority in your classroom.

The search for classroom technology can be overwhelming. Whether you’re looking for hardware or software, there are often hundreds of options on the market, all loaded with their own bells and whistles. Not to mention, your budget may be tight, and you want technology that integrates seamlessly into your lessons rather than taking them over. Here are five smart steps to follow before you buy.

The idea of teacher collaboration just makes sense:  why be an island when you can get together with like-minded professionals and share ideas and glean knowledge from each other?  But, it's easy to get caught in a collaboration rut—a place where you're simply trading ideas and then heading back to your classroom to implement lessons that are less-than-your-best.   But we want more for you—and that's why we've pulled together five easy ways to help you collaborate better.

If the world is your students' classroom, then how would you spend less time between those four walls?  We asked four of our go-to expert teachers that question and they all gave the same response: It's so hard to leave the classroom when all of my stuffis in there. Teachers are becoming more accustomed to use technology like interactive whiteboards in their lessons that it's hard to imagine teaching without tech.

There's no doubt that many of the top careers of the future will involve science, technology, engineering and math.  So, what are you doing to integrate STEM into your everyday classroom activities?  Here are eight easy ways to help your students to hone the essential problem solving and critical thinking skills they'll need to be successful STEM leaders in the future.

Service-learning projects teach students that they can contribute to society in a meaningful way.

Have you been reading poetry all month long? We have—what fun! With just one more week of National Poetry Month left, we thought we’d share a few of our favorite new poetry titles and related activities. We hope you can squeeze one of them in this week.

Today in your classroom you will teach the next generation of businessmen and women, lawyers, doctors, politicians and accounting professionals. But how will the business world change before your students enter the working world?  Intuit, in partnership with Emergent Research, spent time exploring the demographic, social, economic and technology trends that will affect our students over the next decade. The results were fascinating (get your free report by clicking here) — and we used these findings along with our own research to put together this list of 18 easy things you can do to prepare today's students for a successful future.

In honor of Earth Day this Sunday, April 22, students across the country are learning about recycling, the environment, and creative ways to protect our planet for future generations of teachers and kids. We love Earth Day because its many subtopics lend themselves to lessons in math, science, language arts, social studies, and more. Here are some of our favorite cross-curricular ideas.

LeapFrog Tag™ systems have become the well-loved go-to gadget for teaching early literacy.  And it's not a surprise as to why:  Tag is fun, educational and Tag teaches essential reading and literacy skills in a way that no other device can. But have you considered expanding the use of your Tag system into center time in order to facilitate learning that goes beyond literacy?  Here are five fun ideas.

Earth Day is this Sunday, April 22, and at WeAreTeachers, we’re celebrating all things green with these environmentally friendly tales.

Help students with autism spectrum disorders navigate social challenges.

Across socioeconomic divides, students have more access to personal cell phones, tablets, and computers than ever before. So why not harness the power of that technology in school? Whether your district has an established bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy or whether you’re just beginning to explore the idea, here are some best practices for making BYOD a success.