Food Marketing and Classroom Differentiation

Human variability: Whether it's differentiated instruction, or food marketing, "embracing the diversity of human beings, we'll find the way to true happiness." As you watch this TED Talk, think about what Malcolm Gladwell says about the epiphany in food marketing and how this is a true epiphany for not only human behavior in general, but how it matches our ideas of best practices in education. Giving students meaningful choices that we, as teachers, construct, is different than students constructing their own choices without guidance. Choices with guidance in a differentiated classroom is an essential piece of student ownership and human development.

A Year-Long Poetry Unit

April is poetry month. But I can't fathom teaching poetry in a single arbitrary month. Instead, my class tackles poetry once a week all year long. Here is a Prezi of my poetry unit for fourth grade.

"Peelay-ing" Poetry on Prezi

Questions of Value: Integrating Social Studies and Reading

Here is another one of my Prezi presentations to my parents this upcoming year. This is a cross-curricula unit on values:

Questions of Value on Prezi

A Fourth Grade Class Economy

One of my goals this year is to improve communication with my parent community. To this end, I've designed a few of my bigger units as Prezi presentations to share. Here is the presentation for our 4th grade class economy:

Class Economy on Prezi