Do you want to help your students explore their interests and extend their learning beyond a scripted curriculum? Consider trying inquiry-based investigations in your early childhood classroom.

In my 3rd-grade classroom, my students use thinking maps — which are not graphic organizers! — to represent their ideas. Each type of thinking map connects a basic cognitive skill with a visual representation.


To help my students grow as writers and community members, I teach the art of letter writing to my 2nd-graders.

Life in a classroom can be chaotic, stressful and unpredictable. I try to set up clear expectations for my pre-K students about how to handle stressful moments.

When a teacher can find innovative and creative ways to approach mundane subjects, it can truly get a student’s creative juices flowing. Wooden blocks helped build a Regents Prep program that does just that.

Students do better in school when learning engages both their minds and their hearts. This dual approach is known as service learning — a teaching method that develops students’ skills and knowledge as they apply classroom lessons to meet real community needs.