Author name: Dylan Callens

Skill Auction lesson plan

Skill Auction Lesson Plan: Engaging Students in Career and Life Skills

As teachers, we’re always looking for ways to make career exploration and personal development activities feel less like “just another lesson” and more like a genuine experience. That’s where the skill auction comes in—a fast-paced, interactive activity that gets students thinking about the value of different skills, how those skills relate to jobs, and how […]

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Building a Positive Classroom Environment: 15 Strategies

Building a Positive Classroom Environment: 15 Strategies

Look around any thriving classroom and you’ll notice the same invisible ingredient: students feel safe, valued, and eager to participate. When the climate is positive, academic scores climb, behavior incidents shrink, and social-emotional skills blossom—all without adding hours to your workload. The good news? A welcoming atmosphere isn’t a mysterious talent; it’s the product of

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20 Differentiated Instruction Strategies For Every Learner

20 Differentiated Instruction Strategies For Every Learner

Every class is a mixed bag of readiness levels, interests, and learning quirks, which means a single-track lesson plan invariably leaves someone behind. Differentiated instruction fixes that gap by tuning four levers—content, process, product, and environment—so each student can reach the same learning goal through a path that fits. If you’ve been hunting for practical,

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15 Classroom Management Professional Development Courses

15 Classroom Management Professional Development Courses

Below are 15 of the most reputable, up-to-date professional development courses for teachers who want to run calm, productive classrooms. Each option has been investigated so you can skip the guesswork and start learning. For this list, “classroom management PD” means any structured learning experience—online, in person, or hybrid—that equips you to tighten routines, guide

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15 Growth Mindset Resources for Teachers That Really Work

15 Growth Mindset Resources for Teachers That Really Work

Your students’ confidence can crumble the moment a math problem feels impossible or a rough draft bleeds red ink. When that fragile faith shifts toward “I can’t,” teachers need more than pep talks—they need concrete tools that turn struggle into spark. The 15 resources collected here—printables, digital programs, hands-on projects, and AI helpers—have been vetted

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20 Ideas for Classroom Activities That Make Learning Fun

20 Ideas for Classroom Activities That Make Learning Fun

Your lesson has five minutes left and energy is fading fast. Rather than scramble for another worksheet, imagine pulling a single activity from your back pocket that jolts students awake, sparks real thinking, and requires almost zero setup. That’s exactly what this guide delivers: 20 classroom activities tested by teachers, adaptable for any grade from

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Professional Development for New Teachers: 12 Key Tips

Professional Development for New Teachers: 12 Key Tips

If your browser history is filling up with frantic searches for classroom management tricks, affordable workshops, and anything that will make parent-teacher night less nerve-racking, you’re not alone. The first year feels like drinking from a firehose: lessons to prep, students to motivate, data to track, mentors to impress—and somehow you’re expected to build a

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AI Tools for Teachers: 20 Essential Apps to Save Time Today

AI Tools for Teachers: 20 Essential Apps to Save Time Today

Imagine reclaiming three, five, even ten hours a week—the time you normally spend squeezing lesson plans, exit tickets, or grading into your evenings. The twenty AI apps highlighted below have already done that heavy lifting for hundreds of teachers I coach, and each one can be running in your classroom before the next bell rings.

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15 Cooperative Learning Techniques for Engaged Classrooms

15 Cooperative Learning Techniques for Engaged Classrooms

Students accomplish more when their desks become launchpads for shared thinking rather than islands of silent struggle. Cooperative learning turns casual group work into a research-backed system where every learner carries both the weight and the reward of the task. Unlike the familiar “divide-and-conquer” approach—where one student often finishes while others coast—true cooperative learning rests

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dream day diary entry

Dream Day Diary Entry Lesson Plan: Guiding Students to Imagine Their Future

What if your students could fast-forward into their dream careers for one magical day? The dream day diary entry lesson invites them to do exactly that—through the power of creative writing, goal-setting, and a healthy dose of imagination. When learners step into the shoes of a future architect, marine biologist, game designer, or social-impact lawyer,

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