Teach well. Be happy. In this book, Heather Wolpert-Gawron, author of the popular education blog "Tweenteacher" shares ideas for teaching an age group that too often presents a challenge for educators. With sparkling humor and a unique, fundamental understanding of the middle children of education, the award-winning teacher offers tried-and-true strategies for: Creating a tween-centric classroom environment Building community in the middle school classroom Encouraging deeper thinking and curiosity among tweens Understanding and informing tweens about how they learn Conversational and practical, this book aims to motivate and inspire middle school teachers as they work to engage their students, instruct with rigor, and improve their own experiences as Tweenteachers!

Are you interested in using Project Based Learning to revamp your lessons, but aren't sure how to get started? In DIY Project Based Learning in ELA and History, award-winning teacher and Edutopia blogger Heather Wolpert-Gawron makes it fun and easy! Project Based Learning encourages students and teachers alike to abandon their dusty textbooks, and instead embrace a form of curriculum design focused on student engagement, innovation, and creative problem-solving. A leading name in this field, Heather Wolpert-Gawron shares some of her most popular units for ELA and Social Studies in this exciting new collection. This book is an essential resource for teachers looking to: Create their own Project Based Learning units. Engage student in their education by grounding lessons in real-world problems and encouraging them to develop creative solutions. Incorporate role-playing into everyday learning. Develop real-world lessons to get students to understand the life-long relevance of what they are learning. Assess multiple skills and subject areas in an integrated way. Collaborate with teachers across subject areas. Test authentic skills and set authentic goals for their students to grow as individuals. Part I of the book features six full units, complete with student samples, targeted rubrics, a checklist to keep students on track, and even "Homework Hints." Part II is a mix-and-match section of tools you can use to create your own PBL-aligned lessons. The tools are available as eResources on our website, http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9781138891623, so you can print and use them in your classroom immediately.

For students to become college-ready writers, they must be exposed to writing throughout the school day, not just in English class. This practical book shows teachers in all subject areas how to meet the Common Core State Standards and make writing come alive in the classroom. Award-winning educator Heather Wolpert-Gawron provides effective and exciting ideas for teaching argument writing, informational writing, project-based writing, and writing with technology. Each chapter is filled with strategies, prompts, and rubrics you can use immediately. Special Features: A variety of writing strategies that work in any subject area Tips for developing meaningful prompts Diagrams and templates that you can use with your students Rubrics for assessing writing, as well as ideas for having students create their own rubrics Samples of student work in different formats Ideas for teaching students to break the Google homepage habit and conduct effective research Cross-curricular writing assignments for science, history, ELA, electives, and PE Suggestions for teaching summary writing, an essential academic skill Ideas for staff professional development on Common Core writing

Teach well. Be happy. In this book, Heather Wolpert-Gawron, author of the popular education blog "Tweenteacher" shares ideas for teaching an age group that too often presents a challenge for educators. With sparkling humor and a unique, fundamental understanding of the middle children of education, the award-winning teacher offers tried-and-true strategies for: Creating a tween-centric classroom environment Building community in the middle school classroom Encouraging deeper thinking and curiosity among tweens Understanding and informing tweens about how they learn

Conversational and practical, this book aims to motivate and inspire middle school teachers as they work to engage their students, instruct with rigor, and improve their own experiences as Tweenteachers

Are you interested in using Project Based Learning to revamp your lessons, but aren't sure how to get started? In DIY Project Based Learning for Math and Science, award-winning teacher and Edutopia blogger Heather Wolpert-Gawron makes it fun and easy! Project Based Learning encourages students and teachers alike to abandon their dusty textbooks, and instead embrace a form of curriculum design focused on student engagement, innovation, and creative problem-solving. A leading name in this field, Heather Wolpert-Gawron shares some of her most popular units for Math and Science in this exciting new collection. This book is an essential resource for teachers looking to: Create their own project-based learning units. Engage student in their education by grounding lessons in real-world problems and encouraging them to develop creative solutions. Incorporate role-playing into everyday learning. Develop real-world lessons to get students to understand the life-long relevance of what they are learning. Assess multiple skills and subject areas in an integrated way. Collaborate with teachers across subject areas. Test authentic skills and set authentic goals for their students to grow as individuals. Part I of the book features five full units, complete with student samples, targeted rubrics, a checklist to keep students on track, and even "Homework Hints." Part II is a mix-and-match section of tools you can use to create your own PBL-aligned lessons. The tools are available as eResources on our website, www.routledge.com/9781138891609, so you can print and use them in your classroom immediately.

Are you interested in using Project Based Learning to revamp your lessons, but aren't sure how to get started? In DIY Project Based Learning for Math and Science, award-winning teacher and Edutopia blogger Heather Wolpert-Gawron makes it fun and easy! Project Based Learning encourages students and teachers alike to abandon their dusty textbooks, and instead embrace a form of curriculum design focused on student engagement, innovation, and creative problem-solving. A leading name in this field, Heather Wolpert-Gawron shares some of her most popular units for Math and Science in this exciting new collection. This book is an essential resource for teachers looking to: Create their own project-based learning units. Engage student in their education by grounding lessons in real-world problems and encouraging them to develop creative solutions. Incorporate role-playing into everyday learning. Develop real-world lessons to get students to understand the life-long relevance of what they are learning. Assess multiple skills and subject areas in an integrated way. Collaborate with teachers across subject areas. Test authentic skills and set authentic goals for their students to grow as individuals. Part I of the book features five full units, complete with student samples, targeted rubrics, a checklist to keep students on track, and even "Homework Hints." Part II is a mix-and-match section of tools you can use to create your own PBL-aligned lessons. The tools are available as eResources on our website, www.routledge.com/9781138891609, so you can print and use them in your classroom immediately.

For students to become college-ready writers, they must be exposed to writing throughout the school day, not just in English class. This practical book shows teachers in all subject areas how to meet the Common Core State Standards and make writing come alive in the classroom. Award-winning educator Heather Wolpert-Gawron provides effective and exciting ideas for teaching argument writing, informational writing, project-based writing, and writing with technology. Each chapter is filled with strategies, prompts, and rubrics you can use immediately.

Special Features:

• A variety of writing strategies that work in any subject area
• Tips for developing meaningful prompts
• Diagrams and templates that you can use with your students
• Rubrics for assessing writing, as well as ideas for having students create their own rubrics
• Samples of student work in different formats
• Ideas for teaching students to break the Google homepage habit and conduct effective research
• Cross-curricular writing assignments for science, history, ELA, electives, and PE
• Suggestions for teaching summary writing, an essential academic skill
• Ideas for staff professional development on Common Core writing

Are you interested in using Project Based Learning to revamp your lessons, but aren't sure how to get started? In DIY Project Based Learning in ELA and History, award-winning teacher and Edutopia blogger Heather Wolpert-Gawron makes it fun and easy! Project Based Learning encourages students and teachers alike to abandon their dusty textbooks, and instead embrace a form of curriculum design focused on student engagement, innovation, and creative problem-solving. A leading name in this field, Heather Wolpert-Gawron shares some of her most popular units for ELA and Social Studies in this exciting new collection. This book is an essential resource for teachers looking to: Create their own Project Based Learning units. Engage student in their education by grounding lessons in real-world problems and encouraging them to develop creative solutions. Incorporate role-playing into everyday learning. Develop real-world lessons to get students to understand the life-long relevance of what they are learning. Assess multiple skills and subject areas in an integrated way. Collaborate with teachers across subject areas. Test authentic skills and set authentic goals for their students to grow as individuals. Part I of the book features six full units, complete with student samples, targeted rubrics, a checklist to keep students on track, and even "Homework Hints." Part II is a mix-and-match section of tools you can use to create your own PBL-aligned lessons. The tools are available as eResources on our website, http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9781138891623, so you can print and use them in your classroom immediately.

Incredible amounts of research have been done to discover what engages students. Middle school teacher Heather Wolpert-Gawron decided to conduct her own research project and ask the students themselves. She started with just a simple one-question survey to her class, and was able to boil down their responses into 10 basic engagement strategies.