To say classrooms have evolved over the past 30 years is an understatement. Thirty years ago, a teacher was considered innovative and thinking out of the box if she signed up for one of the televisions stored in the library, carefully rolled it on the cart down the hall, and brought in a VHS clip[…]
Eric Stoudnour has been teaching at Altoona Area High School for over 25 years. As a chemistry teacher, he’s been showing teens the wonders of science and as a teacher always looking for new ways to inspire his students, he is one of the first adopters of the Inventionland Institute Curriculum. He doesn’t just offer[…]
The Marshmallow Tower: Grades 5-6 In this lesson, students will use marshmallows and uncooked spaghetti to create a freestanding tower. The goal of this lesson is to help students understand engineering and the importance of teamwork. Materials Needed Per Group 20 sticks of spaghetti one yard of tape one yard of string one marshmallow Preparation[…]
Chances are, you’re at least one or two weeks into the school year by now. Have you spoken to all of your students’ parents yet? Although it might seem like an overwhelming task–especially in the upper grades when you may have contact with over one hundred students every day–establishing lines of communication with parents/guardians is[…]
As a student, the teachers’ lounge was a place of mystery and intrigue (and, depending on when you went to school, there may have been a faint smell of cigarette smoke when you walked by). If you ever got to peek inside the lounge before getting hurried away, you saw a strictly grown-up area devoid[…]
Sorry to break it to you, but you’re not a teacher. Sure, you spent four-plus years learning about best practices and pedagogy and have created captivating lessons that align with state standards and benchmarks, but…you’re not a teacher. A teacher instructs, plain and simple. If you were trying to teach yourself how to use your[…]