MiddleWeb's May Articles
Lots of variety in our May article collection: AI vs. accelerated learning; principal self-coaching; learning in motion; math wars; grammar + reading; makerspaces; PLNs; warm demanders and more!
Who can keep up with anything these days?! Once a month we’re making it easy for MiddleWeb Substack subscribers by sending you brief descriptions of last month’s new MiddleWeb.com articles and reviews – written (as always) by educators who are doing the work. Just click on a title to check it out!
Articles
Why We Have Smart Tech & Shrinking Brains
Technology in our classrooms isn’t the enemy, writes Dr. Sonya Murray-Darden. Substitution is. Teachers can’t control how seductive the tools become. They can control whether the thinking still happens in the room. When students do the thinking themselves, learning accelerates.
Self-Coaching Is Key to a Principal’s Success
Rather than let challenging job demands take precedence over principals’ mental health and their professional and personal growth, Ronald Williamson and Barbara R. Blackburn lay out keys to developing self-coaching strategies that benefit principals and their communities.
10 Movement Ideas Help Avoid Mid-Lesson Slump
Move to learn! Prevent those mid-class energy slumps with movement and active learning strategies. Master teacher Kelly Owens describes 10 engaging, low-prep activities she uses to re-energize every student – from the quiet to the restless – to be their best all class long.
Be a Shade of Gray in the Either/Or Math War
Teaching math through inquiry can be excellent. It’s a goal to aspire to. But for many struggling students, jumping straight into pure inquiry without any explicit instruction first can be paralyzing. Juliana Tapper’s Math Wars model helps teachers find the happy (gray) medium.
Using Makerspaces to Boost STEM Curiosity
When schools give students the chance to tinker, create, test ideas, and solve interesting problems, classrooms become places of curiosity and innovation, writes author and STEM curriculum expert Anne Jolly. Makerspaces can help bring that kind of energy into STEM learning.
Grammar & Reading Are One Subject, Not Two
Understanding how sentences work is a reading skill, not just a writing skill, researchers tell us. When students understand how sentences are built, they read better. So, argues Patty McGee, grammar instruction is in fact reading instruction, and we should treat it that way. Check out her sentence-shuffling manipulative!
Teaching: What It Means to Be a Warm Demander
Dina Strasser’s 7th graders like the idea of “Warm Demanders” once they’re introduced to the concept. Their lunch-time conversation has Dina musing about the research and the impact of friendly teachers who require participation in diverse and not-so-diverse classrooms.
3 Tutoring Moves That Enrich Math Learning
When math tutors create space to connect, speak and reflect, students not only gain confidence in their math skills, they strengthen their empathy and resilience and leave their sessions feeling capable, supported, and truly seen as learners, says tutoring expert Halley Bowman.
Never Stop Learning: How to Grow Your Own PLN
A Professional Learning Network offers a practical, sustainable way to grow as a teacher. Dr. Curtis Chandler shares a summer game plan to build your own PLN by starting small, staying consistent, and developing interactions that strengthen your practice and your well-being.
Building a Pipeline for Future Middle School Leaders
Thanks to an extensive career as a teacher, principal and district leader, Jen Schwanke can testify that the vast majority of middle school educators feel deeply connected to the unique journey of adolescent learners. She believes MS principals should be drawn from that pool.
Reviews
Authentic Scenarios to Engage Math Students
With authentic scenarios, well-sequenced tasks, and teacher supports, Real World Math is a classroom-ready resource. Whether your goal is to deepen engagement, build understanding, or spark curiosity, this book brings math to life in a way students and teachers will appreciate.
The Tools You Need to Reach STEM’s Potential
STEM by Design maintains a sharp focus on developing a genuine STEM program. Topics include diverse recruitment, developing STEM challenges, engineering design, life skills, tech integration and more. For all grades 4-8 STEM educators, says teacher educator Michelle Schwartze.
Building Student Agency in Writing Classrooms
Rather than treating writing as a sequence of isolated assignments, in “Goal Setting in the Writing Classroom” Valerie Bolling shares a structure for a continuous, student-driven process shaped by clear goals, routines, and informed choices, writes reviewer Melinda Stewart.
Equitable Instruction for K-8 English Learners
Understanding multilingual students, their languages, histories, and cultures is foundational to making content comprehensible and meaningful. Equity, says Valentina Gonzalez, lives at the intersection of curriculum, instruction, assessment, and students’ seeing themselves valued.
Moves to Help Team Leaders Impact Learning
In “Intentional Moves” Elisa B. MacDonald lays out ready-to-use strategies for team leaders, insightfully describing to readers how her 10 moves will play out within different team dynamics. After four years as a team leader, reviewer Katie Dunkin still keeps the book handy.