It’s finally fall! Time to break out the Pumpkin Spice, Fall decor, and my monthly-themed activities for October. Cross-curricular learning is the next level when it comes to higher-order thinking. Here are 16 engaging classroom activities for October that I’m sure your kids will love to do in their classroom this fall. October Classroom Activity […]

Overwhelmed! Exhausted! So much to do! Send help! And it is only September! Are you even a teacher if you are not feeling any of those at the start of the school year? ETTC educators have been there! We feel your tiredness in the posts and emails we receive! Now ETTC is here to help! […]

How many of us “reteach” a lesson or part of a lesson to students who didn’t grasp it the first time around?  Exactly.  Same.  That is what makes us good educators correct?  What if I said there was something we could do in our classrooms that would make you an even better educator than you […]

“Summertime and the living is easy…” as Ella Fitzgerald once sang.  Not bragging, but I am lounging by the pool with my beverage in hand.  So, it’s kinda easy right now. However, me being me… I’m “lightly” brainstorming what can I do to prep now to make my life easier come August?!   More importantly […]

Teachers, we are so close to the finish line! Spring is right around the corner, and we need all the motivation we can get. Something that keeps me going is all the fun units we get to do with our students near the end of the year. One of my all-time favorites is fairy tales. […]

Typically, as teachers, we put more time and energy into focusing on the students that have fallen behind or are struggling.  That’s where our focus lies, however, that doesn’t mean we ignore our middle-of-the-track or high flyers.  Yes, we want to make sure that those struggling students progress. It is also important to spend time […]

For many of us, our reading block lasts anywhere from 90-120 minutes every day.  That time is extremely important because it is the one time during the day that is protected and uninterrupted.  However, our reading block can seem like a huge chunk of time to keep students engaged.  For me, the time goes by […]

Ah, literacy, My personal favorite to teach. We do literacy in the afternoons and it makes for such an easy and relaxing end to the day. While all subject areas are important to teach, I find that literacy is where everything really ties together. The phonics they’ve been working on, the spelling patterns, the writing […]

“What lesson can we learn from the story?” When it comes to teaching the central message, choosing the story is my favorite part. Over the years I’ve compiled a list of tried and true tales, as well as some NEW titles to use when teaching central message. Keep reading for 19 read alouds for teaching […]

It is the phrase that we all dread “Your class has to go on quarantine for the next (insert number) days.” We have to prepare to continue instructing our students during the quarantine time. Right now, teachers have enough to stress over! Let Education to the Core help alleviate a little bit of that. With […]

Students with Dyslexia are sometimes the most challenging students to figure out! They seem brilliant at specific tasks but then never master the alphabet. They can recite facts about things that are so unbelievably high, but they can’t remember numbers past 20. Some of these students don’t appear to retain information daily, although we repeatedly […]

“Brush-a, brush-a brush-a”… anytime I pick up a toothbrush I act like the sleepover scene in the movie “Grease”.   This is of course before I start a refrain of “Look at me I’m Sandra Dee” in the mirror.   Alright, now that I am finished embarrassing myself let’s get back to the topic at […]