Teaching With Inquiry

It’s time to start getting ready for back-to-school season! I want to talk about what it means to get your classroom back-to-school ready and how to make it manageable and realistic in the time you have. I know that you don’t want to spend half of August prepping for September, so I want to help you make it simple.  We’re talking about things like arranging your space, decorating without going over the top, making resources accessible, and so much more.  What do you do to get your classroom ready for a new school year? If you need some ideas, tune in to this episode.  Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/235   Resources Mentioned: Routine Ready Planner: https://madlylearning.ck.page/a1445fd857 Hue Document Camera: https://amzn.to/3Cfm97c  I would love to connect on Facebook: http://facebook.com/MadlyLearning I would love to connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madlylearningRemember to Subscribe for more insights on how to navigate the complexities of teaching with efficiency and impact. Sh

Have you ever heard me talking about spiraled math instruction and wondered what it would actually look like in your classroom? In this episode, I’m answering your questions about spiraled math and teaching you how to do it the right way. If you’re new to spiraled instruction, it might seem like you have a lot of work ahead of you, but it’s actually very simple when you know exactly what you need to do.  I’m talking about what spiraling is, why you would want to spiral your math instruction, and what it looks like in the classroom. I’m sharing ideas to help you get started and a resource you can use to make it even easier.  If you’ve been wondering how to spiral your math instruction, I think you’ll find this episode a great place to start.  Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/234 Resources Mentioned: Learn More About Ignited Math: www.ignitedmath.ca I would love to connect on Facebook: http://facebook.com/MadlyLearning I would love to connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madlylearningRem

Do you like a lot of structure in your classroom, or do you prefer to hand the responsibilities over to your students? The great thing about math centers is that you get to choose what learning looks like in your classroom. That’s right, in this episode, we’re continuing the discussion about math centers. I’m explaining why I love centers so much for math and teaching you two important aspects of planning centers: how to rotate your students through different activities and how to group your students. It all comes down to choosing structured vs. open rotations and fixed groupings vs. flexible groupings. I’m giving you 4 different ways to run your centers using these options and explaining when and why you might use each one. If you want to create more flexibility in your classroom, this is for you.    Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/233   Resources Mentioned: Learn More About Ignited Math: www.ignitedmath.ca   I would love to connect on Facebook: http://facebook.com/MadlyLearning I would love to

Have you been wondering how to get started with your math centers? This is a quick and simple episode breaking down everything you need to know about math centers and what activities to include in them.  I get a lot of questions about how to run math centers, what goes into each center, and what they look like in the classroom, so I’m here to answer all those questions in one place.  I love using centers for math not only because they are fun and engaging, but because they allow me to spend time on guided math instruction. I hope that some of my enthusiasm for math centers rubs off on you and that by the end of this episode, you love them as much as I do! Tune in, so we can figure out how to make math centers work in your classroom together!   Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/232   Resources Mentioned: Learn More About Ignited Math: www.ignitedmath.ca   I would love to connect on Facebook: http://facebook.com/MadlyLearning I would love to connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madlylear

Are you starting to get ready for summer vacation? Before you get into full vacation mode to enjoy some well-deserved rest and relaxation, it’s a good idea to take the last few weeks of the school year to get prepped for next year. Trust me, it’s going to save you a lot of stress over the summer, especially when the back-to-school season comes around.  In this episode, I’m sharing my tips to prep for the next school year during the last few weeks before the summer.  You’d be surprised how much you can get planned and ready right now while you’re still in the classroom surrounded by resources and colleagues. I promise that the work you do now will pay off in September. You’ll be thanking yourself when you can enjoy a few more weeks of relaxation while everyone else is scrambling to get things together for the school year.  Tune in to find out what you can do now to make sure you actually enjoy your summer.    Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/231   Resources Mentioned: Grab the Long-Range Plans: ww

How are you going to get everything covered in the time that you have left in the school year? If that’s the question you're asking yourself right now, you’re going to want to catch this episode because I’m sharing the strategies I use to make sure I’m covering everything leftover in the subjects that I’ve fallen short on throughout the year.  I want to help you do each subject justice while still getting through the content in a reasonable way, so you’ll find out what to ditch and what to combine to make sure all the important things are covered by the end of the year. I also shared how to plan your entire year in advance so that you never again find yourself stressed out about cramming everything in at the end of the year, so take a deep breath and tune in to get some help finishing up your school year.    Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/230   Resources Mentioned: Grab the Long-Range Plans: www.madlylearning.com/lrp  Check Out the Other Madly Learning Resources: www.madlylearning.com/stor

Do you want to use math centers in your classroom but you don’t know where to start?   Maybe you’re worried that your kids aren’t going to work independently or you don’t know when you’ll find time to plan and prep math centers when you’re already so busy. Well, I have a solution for you.   This episode is all about the 4 different math centers that you can use in your classroom. I’m making math centers simple so that you don’t have to worry. If you want math to be engaging and hands-on while still covering the curriculum and teaching your kids everything they need to know, look no further.    If you’ve been wondering how to get started with math centers, this is for you!    Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/229   Resources Mentioned: Sign Up to Join Ignited Math: https://www.madlylearning.com/sp/ignitedmath-short/   I would love to connect on Facebook: http://facebook.com/MadlyLearning   I would love to connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madlylearningRemember to Subscribe for more in

Is it time for a math test in your classroom? How do you make sure that your test accurately reflects what your students know? It can be hard to know if you’re asking the right types of questions, marking accurately, and assessing the content that you actually want to be assessing. This can lead to all kinds of problems with tests.  Anyone can write a test, but as teachers, it’s our job to make sure that tests are accurately measuring student achievement.  I’ve spent a lot of time agonizing over what questions to put in a test, how to weigh a test, and how to score a test, and I want to share my results with you so that you don’t have to agonize over your tests too.  If you’re ready to switch up your test-planning process to make sure your students are getting the scores they deserve, tune in to this episode.    Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/228   Resources Mentioned: Download the Math Test Planner: https://madlylearning.ck.page/0a6693cb10 Episode 214: Math and Assessment: www.madlylearning.co

What if I told you that you didn’t need to have so many math tests? There are other things you can do to effectively assess your students and generate marks for their report cards without overburdening yourself with marking to take home.  I’m sharing the methods you can use to assess your students without giving them endless tests and creating more work for you. These methods are going to give you more reliable results that accurately reflect how your students are performing, and they will allow you to assess your students more frequently so that you always know where they’re at with the material. If you’re not utilizing things like guided sessions, math warm-ups, and math journals, then you’re probably spending a lot more time writing and marking tests than you need to be.  Are you ready to ditch the tests? This is for you.   Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/227   Resources Mentioned: Join the Waitlist for Ignited Math: http://www.ignitedteaching.ca/IMwaitlist Episode 214: Math and Assessment: w

If you simplify the work you give your students because it’s too hard, are you accommodating, or are you modifying?   Your students have been through a lot when it comes to learning during the pandemic, and of course, you want to support your students who have gaps in their learning, but it’s important that you’re not modifying the program that they need to be on now.    This episode is about how to make sure you’re not modifying and oversimplifying tasks to meet your students where they are but instead are accommodating to help them reach where they need to be.    There’s a fine line between accommodating and modifying and I want to help you identify that and stick to it. I believe in you and your students, and I know that you’re going to get exactly where you need to be by the end of the year. If you're feeling the urge to simplify your students’ work to make it easier for them, stop and listen to this episode first!    Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/226   Resources Mentioned: Visit the

Are you juggling a lot of different levels of understanding and learning styles in your classroom after the pandemic?   There’s a fine line between accommodations and modifications for students, but both are important to understand and can help you keep all your kids on track.    In this episode, I’m focusing on accommodations in the classroom and talking about what they look like, how to implement them, and how they differ from modifications.    If you need some ideas on how to accommodate for gaps in understanding due to the pandemic, I’ve got you covered.    You can also come back to this episode anytime you’re struggling with accommodations in your classroom. It doesn’t have to be pandemic-related!  Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/225   Resources Mentioned: Visit the Madly Learning Store: www.madlylearning.com/store I would love to connect on Facebook: http://facebook.com/MadlyLearning    I would love to connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madlylearningRemember to Subscribe f

Do your kids work a little differently in the classroom these days?   With COVID restrictions lifting here in Ontario, teaching is finally starting to feel normal again, except for the fact that now we’re teaching pandemic kids.    Learning has looked pretty different for our students over the last two years. Many of them are used to working at home on a laptop or tablet with the freedom to walk around, go to the bathroom, and get snacks whenever they want. Others might not have had much access to technology at all and haven’t had as many opportunities to learn as their peers.    This episode is here to help you and your students settle back into your less-restricted classrooms. I’m going over what it’s like to teach kids who have experienced a different style of learning over the last two years and what we can do as teachers to help them move forward.    If you’re trying to figure things out as your classroom gets back to normal, this episode is for you.    Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/224  

Are you constantly having to adapt to curriculum changes?   Sometimes a new curriculum comes at us with little to no warning and we feel like we’re expected to overhaul absolutely everything to do it the new way.    In this episode, I’m talking about how to handle curriculum changes and what you can do to reduce some of the stress that they cause.    It’s important to remember that changes are made for a reason. It doesn’t make sense to keep an outdated curriculum that doesn’t reflect the world we live in today, so changes can be a really good thing.    If you’re facing a curriculum change, I want you to know that often, it’s not as big of a deal as it seems. By the end of this episode, you’ll have the tools you need to handle it calmly and confidently.    Tune in to find out how to handle curriculum changes like they’re no big deal.    Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/223   Resources Mentioned: The Madly Learning Teacher Store: www.madlylearning.com/store   I would love to connect on Facebook: h

Are there things you’ve tried in your classroom that you will absolutely never do again?   After 15 years of teaching, I’ve made my fair share of mistakes, but some stand out more than others and there are definitely some that I will never make again.    In this episode, I’m sharing the top three things I’ve done in my classroom that I don’t ever want to do again. Hopefully, this will help you avoid making the same mistakes that I made or give you some ideas about how you want to run your classroom.   You’ll hear why I tried each of these things, why I stopped doing them,  and why I don’t plan on ever doing them again.    I still make mistakes every day, but I do my best to learn from them and use them to make my classroom a better place for all my students.    If you want to know what things I would never do in my classroom again, tune in.    Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/222   Resources Mentioned: Ignited Literacy and Ignited Math: www.ignitedteaching.ca I would love to connect on Facebook

Have your students ever complained that they can’t play video games in your classroom? Mine did, and it gave me an idea for a classroom activity that I knew they would love.    This is the story of how we ended up playing Minecraft in my classroom to learn about social studies.    My students were shocked when I said yes to letting them play video games in class, and because I listened to them and let them lead, they were engaged in the project right from the start.    Now, I didn’t just set my students loose on the computers and let them do whatever they wanted. We talked as a class about the curriculum expectations for their project on the global community, they created a plan for how to demonstrate the curriculum expectations in Minecraft, and then they did it!    I even learned a thing or two about Minecraft along the way.    If this sounds like something your students would love, tune in to find out how we made it work!    Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/221   Resources Mentioned: Get the M

What do you do with the rest of your class when you want to do guided reading with a small group?   That’s the question I hope I can answer for you in this episode. We’re digging into a bunch of different activities that you can use to allow you to focus on guided instruction while the rest of your students work independently.    Independent learning might not always look the way you want it to. It’s important to remember that different students work in different ways, and it’s okay if they aren’t silent and still the whole time that you’re working with a small group. What’s more important is that your students stay engaged in what they’re doing until you get back.    We’re talking about how to teach your students to work independently, what independent learning tasks should look like, and how to hold students accountable for the work they are assigned.   What are you going to try next time you need to do guided instruction? Tune in to get some ideas.    Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/220   Res

Do you hate marking? Yeah, me too.    Marking is a constant struggle. It’s so time-consuming that we feel like the only way to get it all done is to take it home, but when we take it home we either leave it in a bag and forget about it, or we ditch our time with friends and family and spend our time working unpaid. Does that sound familiar?      This episode is about how to strategically plan time for marking and set up conditions that allow you to get it done in a less time-consuming way.    I’m sharing 6 tried-and-true strategies that I use to reduce the amount of marking I take home.    If you want to spend more of your time at home with friends and family rather than buried under a pile of marking, this is for you.    Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/219   Resources Mentioned: Learn more about Ignited Math: www.madlylearning.com/ignitedmath Learn more about Ignited Literacy: https://www.ignitedliteracy.com/IL2021SP   I would love to connect on Facebook: http://facebook.com/MadlyLearning    I

Do you consider yourself a lifelong learner? I feel like a lot of us get into teaching because we love to learn, and our guest on this episode is no exception.    Celeste Kirsh is researching how teachers can learn new genres of writing. In this episode, she’s sharing some of her findings so far that could shake up the way we learn as writing teachers and how that relates to teaching middle school writing.    Celeste understands the common obstacles that teachers face when it comes to teaching writing, and she believes in researching and finding better solutions. This episode is a great place for you to get inspired to learn more about your own teaching methods and new ways that you could approach teaching writing. If assessment is something that holds you back from trying new things in your writing classroom, she’s got you covered there too.     Celeste Kirsh is a PhD student at The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto where she is studying critical literacies and writing i

Have you ever been questioned about how you teach math or why you teach certain strategies? Most of us have.    In this episode, I’m continuing the discussion about new math and why we teach so many different strategies to help kids solve number problems.    I’m specifically walking you through different ways to teach division because division is often the most challenging. We’re looking at different strategies, why we use them, and what order I would teach them in. I’m giving you examples of each strategy so that you can see exactly how I would teach them in my classroom.    To get the most out of this episode, you might want to check out the video that goes with it on the Madly Learning YouTube Channel. There you’ll be able to see the division problems that I’m explaining on the screen and follow along.    If you could use some help understanding all the ways we teach division in new math, this is for you.    Resources Mentioned: https://www.madlylearning.com/Ignitedmath   I would love to connect on Faceboo

Have you ever questioned why you’re teaching so many different ways to do division and multiplication or even addition and subtraction?   Math these days requires us to teach a lot of different strategies for solving problems, and this can cause a lot of frustration to parents and teachers alike. I want to use this episode to explain why new math teaches kids so many different strategies and why I think it’s a good thing.    The reality is that new math is not new. It teaches strategies that strong mathematicians have been using in their heads for a long time. However, it looks different from the way that we were taught math when we were younger. Most of us were taught that there’s one right way to solve each problem. Guess what? That’s why so many people think they're bad at math!    This episode will help you understand the reasoning behind new math and teach you how to communicate with parents so that they can understand too.    If you get frustrated by how many different math strategies you have to t