Play-based Learning: Can We Make a Game for This?

By Rachel Hill After stumbling across the book, The Playful Classroom by Jed Dearybury and Julie Jones, I was immediately consumed by the idea of play-based learning in the classroom. This educational framework quickly became an important professional development focus for this school year.  Games as a teaching tool is not a new concept toContinue reading “Play-based Learning: Can We Make a Game for This?”

This Belongs to You!

Letting Children Take Control of Their Education By Heather Lee Schroeder Almost certainly, every child will hit a wall at some point in their educational journey and begin to feel like completing their schoolwork is too difficult. This is when we parents, in cooperation with our child’s teacher(s), need to both warmly encourage and holdContinue reading “This Belongs to You!”

Soft Landings: Community Building at the Start of the School Year

By Rachel Hill Classroom communities are dynamic and complex. They need to be deliberately built and cultivated throughout the school year. A healthy classroom community includes students and teachers who show respect for themselves, each other, and the space around them, which leads to a happier, less stressed learning environment. This deliberate focus on theContinue reading Soft Landings: Community Building at the Start of the School Year

“I’m nervous because I want to be excited!”

The title of this post is a direct quote from one of my younger students on our first day of the school year, and it also embodies exactly how I felt as the teacher in the room. I disentangled myself from the public school system last year to embark on a new chapter of teachingContinue reading ““I’m nervous because I want to be excited!””