My students needed to experience success. And they needed to see that their writing could impact a broader audience than the one held captive each day in their classroom.

After teaching high school reading intervention courses for many years, I know that starting with a novel is a mistake—it’s too long. Instead, I use urban legends.

The Model UN Club found me in 2013 in the shape of two very keen Grade 9 girls making a pitch to me at lunch about the need for more women in politics.

You see, here’s the thing that some of us – teachers and parents alike – don’t really take time to stop and think about: kids’ feelings have value too. And they all have their own needs and wants at any given time.

I have lost count of the number of times I have been told that rules without relationships lead to rebellion. Yet today, relationships with students seem to be feared instead of embraced. Over the years, quite by accident, I have discovered that this precept from days gone by is critical to classroom rules and to learning itself. Relationships are an essential part of learning, especially relationships between teachers and students.

Here is some helpful advice for educators just beginning the long journey to establishing a successful, effective technology classroom.

The benefits of play-based learning are huge, and we shouldn’t be depriving our children of it just because they are getting older.

When I first created the reading test, it was supposed to simply track student progress. But I quickly discovered that sharing the results of my personal tracking system with students has completely changed their engagement and motivation levels.

I was recently involved with an art exhibition in the Thanet District of Kent, England, that helped students see themselves as artists, advocates, and changemakers.