North Jersey Teacher - Latest Comments

Re: Why Your Classroom Management Might Suck

Steve — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 23:25:13 -0000

Thank you! I really appreciate your awesome review!

Re: Why Your Classroom Management Might Suck

Lori Lalama — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 00:42:44 -0000

Are you looking for insight, stratagies, thought-provoking tips for your classroom management? Are you a "newbie" thinking about your first day in the classroom and feeling overwhelmed about keeping kids engaged without any chaos or discipline issues? Are you a veteran teacher who has been shuffled around and now has a new grade, subject, pacing chart, curriculum to teach and feeling frustrated because you want the students to be passionate about your class but they need a lot of TLC. This eBook by Stephen Gambuti nails the the importance, as well as the steps to have a stress free classroom. It is chock full of ideas, tips, jokes, thought-provoking examples to use in your classroom. The way Gambuti writes, he makes you feel as if he is taking you by the hand and guiding you through the maze of classroom management. He is a great writer, author and educator. You will see his passion leap out of the pages to guide you and help you. Great job!

Re: How Did You Remember September 11th?

Steve — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 07:53:30 -0000

Thanks for reading, Karl,

We live about 15 minutes tops from Manhattan. In fact we can see the new Freedom Tower from my home. Our area is very populated with all walks of life, so its a bit different I am sure.

What's really strange is that my current middle schoolers just look at September 11th the way we might have looked at Pearl Harbor. Boy am I getting old...lol

Re: How Did You Remember September 11th?

Karl Ubelhoer — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 03:22:21 -0000

I start with the idea of family, and work backwards. Who is family? What makes them family? Who became family on 9/11? How, why?
I teach 6th grade in Ocean County. It's a relatively quiet, even sheltered, community that's pretty homogeneous. More than anything, they don't understand the concept of Muslim vs. Arab vs Middle Easterner. They have no point of reference or sense of scope and scale. 'Every Muslim is a terrorist. Every Middle Easterner should be considered suspicious.' They don't know any better. They're whole lives have been spent with their country at war with 'those people.' And 'those people' have gone by so many names over the years, I confess to having problems myself keeping their names, their connections, and their differences separate and clear.
Trying to help them sort ideas & information and providing some kind of perspective and context seems to be the thing they need most from me.
I wish you well in your efforts.

Re: Best EdTech Tools for Teaching Essay Writing

Brodie Bonwick — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 08:12:27 -0000

Thanks fot the interesting post

Re: Demonstration of Learning: Group Style

Lori Lalama — Thu, 18 Sep 2014 22:15:31 -0000

I think as educators, we need to think outside of the box too. Sometimes we teach the same way our teachers taught us and that is wrong. We need to remember there are many ways to get to the answer, depending on the student's style of learning. Your article was very thought-provoking Steve!

Re: Students using Cell Phones in Class? It’s Happening Right in Bergen County!

Chad Barrette — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 14:14:08 -0000

I love the idea of having cellphones in the classroom for purposeful learning! The five rules suggested are helpful to getting this started. Cellphones are really not phones, they are more like personal computers that can make phone calls! I think their next step is to develop exams that ask questions that are deep enough that the students will need to use their cellphones for the exam. No one tells me to put away my cellphone at work or tells me to just use paper and pencil when figuring out a problem, if the kids are using the phones to learn then go for it!

Re: Using Quizlet to Increase Vocabulary

Monica Burns — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 21:19:27 -0000

Quizlet is fantastic!

http://wp.me/p2qsME-3F