We asked Katherine to share some of her thoughts about teaching -- best practices and fun facts. Read below to learn more about her teaching style:

Three words that represent your teaching persona

lively, quirky, expectations

Why teach? Or, how did you become a teacher?

I was doing my doctorate and started teaching undergraduates on the side to earn extra money. I quickly discovered that this was more fun than research! I finished my doctorate and started my teacher training straight away and have never looked back!

What would you be if not a teacher?

Police woman

What do you do to optimize student engagement in class?

Fast pace, quirky demos or applications, colourful materials.

A textured lesson - visually, spatial, etc., is essential. Are the kids writing, drawing, cutting, watching, listening, comparing ideas, doing a practical, trying maths out for themselves, etc.?

Circulation is important - I recommend having a slide changer with laser pen!

Coffee, tea, or caffeine-free?

Tea before 11am, Coffee after.

Describe your classroom management style (including a few best practices) in a few sentences.

I'm quite strict and operate a stick then cake rather than carrot then stick policy. I place a lot of emphasis on their ownership of the learning space, of their own work and of their learning in general: notice boards, pencil pots, AfL sheets, stickers.

Best practice: AfL sheets on the front of their books to record all their grades, targets, comments etc. Personalised stickers and commendation slips.

Favorite Cartoon/TV/Movie Teacher

Snoopy/Frasier/Mr Black from School of Rock

Favorite Book (to read or to teach)

Feynman Lectures / Physics for You

Is teaching a science or art? Explain.

Both. You think you know the subject and they throw a googly at you. You plan the lesson to the last detail, which incorporates everything in the teaching text books (that's the science) and then they walk in, grumpy or tired, and the art is now is adapting your teaching style to motivate them. Your job is never done - I get the impression that even after teaching a topic for 25 years, you can still walk out of a lesson knowing that it wasn't the best that you could have delivered. That's what makes teachers so special - they persevere, they reflect constantly on their own work, and they are endlessly creative.

Describe your process of preparing a lesson.

1) Look at the learning objectives required

2) Think about suitable demos and experiments

3) Work out the overriding theme to the lesson - ie) style or particular skills imbedded e.g. revision techniques or maths support 

4) Are there some good video clips, quirky examples that can liven up the topic

5) Do I have the right worksheets and other materials.

6) Head to BL for ideas ...

How do you fit differentiation into your lessons?

Some students have difficulties with maths and I either pair them up with a better student or segregate them to enable good circulation of the weakers ones - before remixing the seating plan asap.

I expect all students to reach the same bar. For those who are slow writers/drawers I can print out SMART pages.

Who was your favorite teacher as a student? Why?

My geography teacher - she had every lesson prepared on OHP slides. She was SO organised and her writing was no neat!

Which teacher do you admire most and what makes him/her a great teacher?

My DPhil supervisor. He made me realise that science is not about learning but about understanding and making connections. He had the ability to work out things that he had never thought of, or at least hadn't thought of for years, and get the correct conclusion.

What makes a teacher effective?

One who isn't tired. We all work too hard.

P.S. You can check out Katherine's science course materials here:

MCS Year 7 Chemistry

MCS Year 8 Chemistry

MCS Year 8 Physics

MCS Year 9 Physics

AS Physics

A2 Physics

As an administrator new to a BetterLesson premium intranet (learn more about premium intranets here), you'll find this document helpful: 2012 BetterLesson Premium Administrator's Toolkit (How-To Videos for Administrators).  

On it, you'll find 30-90 second tutorials explaining how to use the following administrator features: lesson review, master curriculum creation, curriculum curation, and network administration.  Additionally, it covers the following topics for super administrators: network administration, user administration, and account creation.

Please let us know if you have any questions or would like to request a new how-to video.

As a teacher new to a BetterLesson premium intranet (learn more about premium intranets here), you'll find this document helpful: 2012 BetterLesson Teacher Use Cases (How-To Videos for Teachers).  

On it, you'll find 30-90 second tutorials explaining how to do the following: organize and upload curriculum, collaborate on curriculum, search and find resources, access master curriculum, initiate instructional feedback loops, access professional development video, and upload professional development video.

Please let us know if you have any questions or would like to request a new how-to video.

This coming Saturday, April 28th, commemorates the 326th anniversary of Isaac Newton presenting to the Royal Society the first volume manuscript of his seminal work Naturalis Principia Mathematica.  From this first volume, originally entitled "De motu corporum" (On the motion of bodies), the scientific world inherits Newton's Three Laws of Motion.

If you teach an Intro to Physics class, feel free to stand on the shoulders of teacher giants who have taught this before.  Here are some great resources for teaching Newton's Laws of Motion, and beyond:

Forces and Newton's Laws (9th Grade Physics) by Marna Eckels

Forces and Newton's Laws (9th Grade Physics) by Brent Maddin

Newton's Laws (10th Grade Physics) by Daniel Rosen

Forces and Shape (10th Grade Physics) by Katherine Richards

Forces and Newton's Laws (11th Grade Physics) by Daniel Chait

Enjoy,

The BetterLesson Team 

Whether or not you decide to attempt to speak in iambic pentameter meter today, consider the Bard and his contributions to the beautiful English language on this April 23rd, 2012.

Here are a few resources you can use in lessons that introduce Shakespeare's life:

Lesson: Who Was Shakespeare (9th grade ELA)

Resource: Shakespeare's Bio (AP English)

Resource: Intro to Shakespeare (9th grade ELA)

Resource: Shakespeare Background Slideshow (10th grade ELA)

And for those teachers willing to indulge in the 140-characters-or-less/T9-spell-check reality of today's communication modes, here's a fun activity for practicing Shakespearean language in Instant Message (IM) format:

Activity: Rewrite a Shakespearean Dialogue as It Would Go Down Today (Text or IM) (OMG) 

We asked Jim to share some of his thoughts about teaching -- best practices and fun facts. Read below to learn more about his teaching style:

Three words that describes your teaching persona

Urgent, Proximal, Warm-Demanding

Why teach? Or, how did you become a teacher?

It pushes me to my growing-edge daily.

What do you do to optimize student engagement in class?

Incorporate as many of Doug Lemov's "Teach Like a Champion" strategies as possible. "Call and response" is my favorite. Take a basic "Do Now" with five problems as an example. Students enter the classroom (time them, of course, to promote urgency and competition), and I start a timer for 3 minutes. As I circulate the room updating them on the time and checking answers, I am thinking of how we will review answers, after the "call to open." Timer goes off, students all stand and we recite the "call to open." As they sit, hands should already be popping up to answer number 1, if I have done my job right. Instead of calling on five different students to answer five questions, I will most likely start by asking those with colored socks on to answer number one and then give them a countdown to ensure their responses are coordinated. From there I will come up with three other distinguishing traits and ask those students to respond. Lastly, I will ask for students in the [insert the cohort's name here] cohort to respond. This reinforces a sense of cohort pride and what our school leader call's "scholar identity." Obviously if wrong answers are given, I will go back and address those either after the question is read or at the end of the "Do Now," depending on how many wrong answers were audible.

Coffee, tea, or caffeine-free?

Coffee, lots of it.

Describe your classroom management style (including a few best practices) in a few sentences.

I want my students to be exhausted by my lessons. So exhausted that there is no time to consider doing something that might get you in trouble. Even if they do not do their homework, I want them to know that I will stay late with them until they get it done or come in on the weekend until they get caught up. Some refer to it as warm-demanding or tough love.

Favorite Cartoon/TV/Movie Teacher

At the risk of being provocative, the only "teacher" movie I will watch is "Half Nelson." All others position the teacher as the savior; this film shows that students can and do have a tremendous impact on our lives as well.

Favorite Book (to read or to teach)

The Great Gatsby

Describe your process of preparing a lesson.

I want everything programmed and laid out in advance. My colleagues and I "borrowed" Boston Prep's packets system and brought it back to Indiana. Now when students cross the threshold, they have a "learning ladder" in their hands that has everything they will need, save a book, for the next 55 minutes. No awkward transitions, no put this away and get out this, just flip the page and keep the pace moving. My colleagues and I create these "learning ladders" ourselves. It is a lot of work on the front-end, but we have found that when it comes time to execute, we are entirely focused on executing the lesson, a lesson that we know like the backs of our hands because we wrote it, not a textbook company.

Which teacher do you admire most and what makes him/her a great teacher?

I most admire a sixth-grade teacher named Dan Taylor. Mr. Taylor works with a cohort of approximately 22 young men, most of whom are below grade-level. His growth scores last year were through the roof. With two exceptions, he had each of his students reading, writing and computing at grade level after one year with him. He makes it happen by finding ways to incorporate learning into every second of the day. If Mr. Taylor's students are waiting in line to use the restroom, they are reading. If Mr. Taylor's students are waiting to transition from lunch, they are doing mental math. What's key is that these examples occur daily. He never tries, never wavers from his high standards.

P.S. You can check out Jim's Humanities course materials here: Humanities A - Reading and Social Studies.

Every week, we'll be posting the previous week's most popular resources on our "Featured Resources" pages.

There's a page for each of the following:

Elementary School Math

Elementary School Science

Elementary School Social Studies

Elementary School English / Language Arts

Middle School Math

Middle School Science

Middle School Social Studies

Middle School English / Language Arts

High School Math

High School Science

High School Social Studies

High School English / Language Arts

Check back each week to see the newest most popular resources!

Barbaric yawping

Sounds more like a howling pup

Than a mooing calf

That's right.  It's National Poetry Month!  And we're in a haiku mood.

Whether you prefer to yawp like Whitman or saunter like Frost down the road not taken, it's that time of year to celebrate the bards that reside within us all. Time to teach your students about the oft-overlooked pantoum poem (great lesson on Pantoums by Burgess LePage here).

We've taken a moment to organize some of the great teaching resources that have been shared within the BetterLesson community.  Enjoy, and please share with your colleagues!

3rd Grade Unit: Poetry by Melissa Oliver, including lessons on limericks and poem voice.

5th Grade Unit: Poetry by Amber Smith, including the following lessons: Characteristics of Poetry, Parts of Poetry, Rhyme Scheme, Free Verse and Couplets, Alliteration, Onomatopoeia, Metaphor, Simile, Haiku, Limerick, Cinquain, Personification, Mood, Voice, Point of View, and Reading and Responding to Poetry.

7th Grade Unit: Poetry by Burgess LePage, including the following lessons: What Is Poetry?, Limerick, Pantoum, Sonnet, Narrative, Ode, and more.

10th Grade Sonnet Formatting by Krysta Betit

11th Grade Unit: The American Poet by Bilal Khan, including lessons focused around Walt Whitman's poetry.

12th Grade Unit: AP Poetry by Michael McCaffrey, including resources focused around various poem forms and great poets.

We leave you with this:

"I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable.  I sound my barbaric YAWP over the roofs of the world."

- Walt Whitman, from "Song of Myself" 

We asked Elissa to share some of her thoughts about teaching -- best practices and fun facts.  Read below to learn more about her teaching style:

One word that describes your teaching persona

Relaxed

Why teach? Or, how did you become a teacher?

Being a teacher is the only job I've ever wanted. When I was little, I played school with my sisters and sometimes by myself. I would write papers just so I could grade them. I even made my own grade book! At parent-teacher conferences, my parents would tell the teachers that I wanted to teach and so then they would have me be the teacher's assistant. I was definitely the teacher's pet. I was THAT kid.

What would you be if not a teacher?

A secretary or interior designer.

What do you do to optimize student engagement in class?

Recently I've been creating things using index cards or white boards that have students work in partners, switch roles, self-check, and basically stay in engaged. I've done things where half the class has one thing and has to go match themselves up with the other half of the class. Also, I just went to a conference that gave me tons of math game ideas to use for any math concepts. Basically, I look for ways that students can discover new things without me telling them, whether that be through an investigation, discussion, or game.

Coffee, tea, or caffeine-free?

Sweet tea

Describe your classroom management style (including a few best practices) in a few sentences.

Classroom management is my downfall, but the little skill I do have is built on good relationships with my students and a sense of humor. I truly enjoy my students and being with them, and I hope that that shows. I go their basketball games and concerts and I do my best to talk to students individually as much as possible. I buy them their favorite candy on their birthday and ask them about their weekends. During class, I try to keep things light and playful as well as keep the students active. My number one saving grace this year has been keeping students working the entire hour. Down tine = management problems! I figure if I avoid the problems as much a possible, then I don't have to deal with them!

Favorite Cartoon/TV/Movie Teacher

Ron Clark / Esme Raji Codell/ Mr. Feeney

Favorite Book (to read or to teach)

To read: Sophie's Heart

About teaching: Educating Esme

Is teaching a science or art? Explain.

It's both. It's a science because we are always creating a hypothesis, running experiments, and making predictions. There are pieces that can be practiced, taught, learned, and refined. You can analyze and collect data and study it. But it's an art because it's the little things that can't necessarily be measured that make a difference: the hug, pat on the back, smile, relationship advice, remembering a birthday, and so on. It's the passion, the caring, and the little extra that can't necessarily be caught or taught that makes teaching a gift, a talent, an art.

Describe your process of preparing a lesson.

This is my second year of teaching so I still plan day to day. I look at what we did today and see where we need to go from here for tomorrow's lesson. Then I start searching for ideas on Google and I also ask my PLN on twitter for ideas. Once I have a starting point, I try to develop something that students can work on in teams or partners and teach each other. I create investigations that are scaffolded so students can do most of it on their own or I create a Powerpoint for those days that are direct instruction.

How do you fit differentiation into your lessons?

I do a lot of team work and pairs so that I can pair people together who can help each other as well as teach each other. Also, when students are in teams it is easier for me to circulate the room and remediate where needed without drawing attention.

Who was your favorite teacher as a student? Why?

My junior college math professor was my favorite because he was funny, laid back, and really smart. He spent the first class period getting to know us and having us find out more about each other. When he saw you in the hallway, he knew your name and always spoke to you. He made class interesting and fun. He assigned homework but didn't grade it. I'm not sure how he got all of us to do it, but somehow we did it. You didn't want to disappoint him by not practicing, but he would always help you, even if you didn't do the homework. He never embarrassed people when they were wrong and he had a way of explaining things that made every concept seem simple. Simple, not easy. He knew how to make us work without us realizing it.

Which teacher do you admire most and what makes him/her a great teacher?

I admire my first grade teacher who just so happens to now be my colleague. I have never met a student or adult who does not like her. She is always happy, enthusiastic, and positive. She oozes caring from every pore in her body. She is always hard working, going the extra mile, and being supportive. She is full of smiles and good ideas.

What makes a teacher effective?

An effective teacher truly cares about their students and works to develop relationships first so that teaching can come next. Students won't remember everything you teach them but they will remember how you made them feel. When students know they are cared for and care about each other, they will work much harder and push each other farther. Effective teachers get things done and that can't happen without relationship. And it can't happen if you can never find anything. Effective teachers are organized and prepared! Even if it appears to be organized chaos. =)

P.S. You can check out Elissa's Algebra course materials here: Algebra I.

Teachers, don't forget that you can claim up to $250 of out-of-pocket classroom expenses as a tax deduction on your tax return this year (tax filing deadline is Tuesday, 17 April 2012).  Expenses that qualify include supplies, materials, books, and software, among others.

Read the official guidelines here.