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Do Your Students Read Critically?
Blogger Ben Johnson shares strategies to help students develop the skills for critical reading and establish critical reading as a "habit of mind." http://www.flickr.com/photos/vblibrary/4993069751How...
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How to Avoid Testing Burnout
High school principal Ben Johnson offers antidotes to teachers and students for testing burnout. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ransomtech/8513629623I walked into three different classrooms today and...
View ArticleTeaching Students to Dig Deeper
In an excerpt from his new book, Teaching Students to Dig Deeper: The Common Core in Action, Ben Johnson provides teachers with a better understanding of the nature of the advanced thinking. A...
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Student Debate Deepens Thinking and Engagement
Blogger Ben Johnson provides strategies and techniques for creating interesting and challenging student debates in the classroom. http://www.flickr.com/photos/sumeetjain/161992776Student debate has...
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Great Teachers Don't Teach
Blogger Ben Johnson outlines constructivist and experiential teaching techniques that go beyond direct instruction. http://www.flickr.com/photos/newmediaconsortium/5438899851 In a conversation on...
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College and Career Ready: Soft Skills Are Crucial
Blogger Ben Johnson contends that 21st century schools need to teach an array of skills to develop college and career ready students. http://www.flickr.com/photos/amonroy/3042150236With the speed of...
View ArticleParents Aren't Necessary for Students to Learn
High school principal Ben Johnson asks teachers to believe they can teach a child even when parental support is not possible. In teachers' lounges nationwide, parents are a favorite topic of...
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The Dos and Don'ts for Integrating iPads
High school principal Ben Johnson reflects on what he could have done differently to train teachers when each student at his school received an iPad....
View ArticleBack to School: Differentiation for All Students
Edutopia blogger Ben Johnson offers up teaching and technology tools to differentiate classroom learning. In every classroom we have students that are as different as condors are to capybaras. A...
View ArticleLessons Learned: Mexico's Day of Independence
Edutopia blogger Ben Johnson shares his experiences of teaching in Mexico and the lessons he learned. Today is the anniversary of Mexico's independence from Spain. This happened in 1810 when Father...
View ArticleThe Art of Managing Middle School Students
Edutopia blogger Ben Johnson offers up tricks of the trade for managing middle school kids. Squirrels. That is what they remind me of. We were all that age once and we were all just like squirrels!...
View ArticleA Teacher Perspective: Advice for Principals
Blogger Ben Johnson offers his observations to administrators to help them build better relationships with teachers. Being back in the classroom has given me a refreshed perspective. Below, I would...
View ArticleUsing Mastery Learning for Success with Difficult Students
Blogger Ben Johnson proposes mastery learning approach in the classroom can help curb and academically advance unruly students. I tried every trick in the book: framing the lesson, detailed...
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An Interview with Grant Wiggins: The Power of Backwards Design
Edutopia blogger interviews instructional expert and co-author of <i>Understanding by Design</i> Grant Wiggins. http://www.flickr.com/photos/38193629@N02/4296502132/When Grant Wiggins and...
View ArticleCreating Great Students
Principal and Edutopia blogger Ben Johnson offers up strategies for engaging students with high-level learning tasks. The more I think about how we have been looking at education, I think we have it...
View ArticleCreating Learning Environments
Edutopia blogger Ben Johnson proposes that in the digital information age, the teacher's main role will be to guide and motivate students and provide rationale for learning. A while ago I witnessed...
View ArticleHow to Use Wild Hog Questions in the Classroom
Edutopia blogger Ben Johnson proposes teachers move past off-the-cuff and knowledge-based questions by designing questions before teaching. Eighty percent of what we do as learning engineers is ask...
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How to Revitalize Your Students
Edutopia blogger Ben Johnson shares how he plans to revitalize his classroom by destroying apathy, inspiring excellent work, and eliminating unproductive behaviors....
View ArticleToo Much Technology and Not Enough Learning?
Edutopia blogger Ben Johnson, in the second half of a pro-and-con discussion about social media in the classroom, suggests that U.S. students are losing ground because educators put access and...
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6 Steps to Help Students Find Order in Their Thinking
Edutopia blogger Ben Johnson compares M.C. Escher's repetitive art designs to the patterns in thinking we can encourage and develop in students....
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Like a Wood Duck: Finding Peace in the Classroom
Edutopia blogger Ben Johnson suggests that keeping a calm life as a teacher includes having lessons thoroughly prepared and not taking anything personally from students....
View ArticleA Celebration of Learning
Edutopia blogger Ben Johnson reflects on the importance of celebrating student learning often. Back in December, on the long drive from Texas to Utah, I had some time to reflect on many things. I...
View Article10 Steps for Avoiding Teacher Burnout
To avoid teacher burnout, Edutopia blogger Ben Johnson proposes ten tips that include trusting students more, exercising, and redecorating classrooms. "Why did I want to be a teacher?" We all face...
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Reflections of a School Year
Edutopia blogger Ben Johnson proposes that as teachers reflect on the school year, they should consider what their staplers might say about their classrooms....
View ArticleTeacher for Hire: Tips for Finding Summer Employment
Edutopia blogger Ben Johnson suggests several employment alternatives to teaching summer school. One of the nice things about being a teacher is that you get summers off. One of the not so nice things...
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