Rounders is an alternative striking and fielding game that physical education teachers can easily implement in their classes. Traditional American games like softball and baseball can be challenging to play because of equipment and space requirements. This fast-paced European game requires minimal players and equipment, making it a good option for…

The authors describe the benefit of launching mathematics lessons in ways that engage young learners. Short, meaningful introductions can motivate and focus students. Some features of interesting launches are drawn from Ben Dixon's Foundation classroom.

The design of algorithms is one of the hardest topics of high school computer science. This is mainly due to the universality of algorithms as solution methods that guarantee the calculation of a correct solution for all potentially infinitely many instances of an algorithmic problem. The goal of this paper is to present a comprehensible and…

This three-day lesson plan provides students with an introduction to reading topographic maps using multiple modalities. The goal is to give students a range of opportunities using different media to increase their map-reading skills. After hands-on modeling, a summative assessment provides students with the opportunity to put their topographic…

In this article, the author illustrates the application of a financial database called Bloomberg Professional in a fixed income lesson plan. Most business school programs include a finance course that covers bond pricing and spreads, such as a corporate finance or fixed income course. Bloomberg Professional allows students to interact with primary…

Four General Chemistry instructors investigated the use of ChatGPT-4 to improve their lessons plans for the historical experiments of Thomson, Millikan, and Rutherford. The instructors varied in their prior knowledge for these experiments and their initial lessons addressed somewhat different learning objectives. This led to different…

This article explores the work of "Rethinking Schools" (RS). RS is at one and the same time a grassroots movement of teacher-activists, a quarterly journal, and a publishing house. For almost four decades the movement has sought to enact Freirean-inspired curricular/pedagogical initiatives within US public schooling. What makes the work…

The overarching goal of this impact project is to make mycology accessible to more agriscience educators and students. Lesson plans were prepared to link core competencies and science standards to the Wild-Foraged Mushroom certification. Incorporating mycology into the classroom has many benefits, including discussions on food safety and…

Research on effective teaching and learning confirms that thoughtfully designed unit plans and lesson plans can help all students learn more deeply, especially when teachers shift how they think about and approach their lesson planning, moving away from a teacher-centric perspective and toward a student-centric one. A teacher-centric perspective…

Selecting and implementing a new mathematics curriculum program that is both high quality and is supported by stakeholders is a challenging endeavor. In this article, the authors share a year-long process in which a school district's (SD) elementary mathematics committee (EMC) engaged in exploring, testing, and selecting a curriculum program to…

While reports of teachers' use of curriculum materials are common, that of teachers as designers of their own materials are far less so. We argue that these (rare) instructional materials, defined as materials that are classroom-ready and that carry the teachers' actual instructional goals, are 'objects' that are suitable as records of teachers'…

Performing music is one of the fundamental processes of music education. A musical performance includes not only singing or playing accurate notes and rhythms but also making interpretive decisions to convey music expressively. The author researched to find out the best strategies for developing expressive performance, and then created a lesson…

Mathematical concepts have been a consensus goal for decades, yet there is little consensus on what is meant by the terms "mathematical concept" and "mathematical understanding." This article attempts to discuss these terms in a way that can be of practical use to teachers. Greater clarity on "mathematical concept"…

In several of his writings, John Dewey returned to the importance of the imagination for thinking about experience and making sense of it. This article looks at some of what he says, especially in "Democracy and Education," and considers the enduring importance of imagination for lesson-planning, teaching and assessment.

Educators have many "meetings of the minds": Grade-level planning sessions, PLCs, coaching meetings--which together should allow teachers ample opportunities to create high-quality, rigorous lesson plans that deepen student learning. But do these meetings actually work? Frequent planning sessions often become a time for teachers to…