Gamify It! Five Essential Principles for Boosting Student Motivation

Games, especially video games, captivate kids like few other things can. But what if the motivation, engagement, and pure enjoyment games provide could be harnessed for learning? That’s the power of gamification – integrating game elements into education to turbocharge students’ drive to learn. In the face of a growing tide of student work refusal, curriculum experts tout five key principles you’ll need to use gamification effectively in the classroom.

Read More

Effective Literacy in Preschool

What should literacy instruction look like in a preschool classroom? As high-stakes testing puts more pressure on teachers and students, the spotlight is shifting to evaluate how we are preparing students in the years before kindergarten. Expectations for our early learners are going up. Many districts are struggling with how to help more children enter kindergarten ready and on a path to academic success. While it may be tempting to transform preschool classrooms to look more like kindergarten, the research shows that there are two literacy strategies that are proven to be developmentally appropriate and massively impactful for future reading success.

Read More