Go 4th and Teach

I didn't drive until I was 20 years old.  To most people, it seems like I waited a long time. My reason?  I was too scared to drive. I guess I never do anything until I've studied up on it and I just didn't feel ready.  When I finally decided to transfer to a college located 160 miles away from home, however, I needed to make it official.   Before that though, I got rides everywhere.  Back and forth to work, back and forth to school--if I needed to go there, someone else was taking me.  One of the people carting me around was my grandpa.  I lived with my grandparents until I was 15 years old. It just worked out that way. Anyway, most of the time after I moved in with my mom and siblings and I needed a ride, he would be there for me.  Even when I needed to commute to and from the small local branch of Kent State at odd hours, he was the taxi.  I miss those rides.   I saw a tweet recently that got me thinking about how much histo...

Explaining cross-curricular connections and relationships is a very powerful teaching tool . Not only that, but being willing as the adult in the room to share your purpose for teaching the students certain things and explaining our teacher language and methods to students raises engagement and curiosity-- it empowers the students to have intelligent conversations with adults about their learning. 'Cross-Curricular Connections' means "Why" A very recent example I have from my 5th grade classroom this past week, which also inspired me to write this post, stems from our study of the solar system . Many times throughout a school day I set a purpose for my students and remind them of it for each subject. For example, "Remember class, we are learning this because ______________ and also because ________________" .  It is through this type of prompting that I see the greatest curiosity cross my students' faces.  When I spend time telling them that w...