The following guest post was written by Rebekah Stathakis, author of A Good Start:147 Warm-Up Activities for Spanish Class. This is the first in a three-part series on game playing in the classroom. .

I have always enjoyed playing games. My family regularly plays board games when we get together, I play games with my own children almost every day, and (not surprisingly) I have used a wide variety of games* as instructional tools in my classroom. I have never had a student ask “Why are we playing games?” Instead, students usually ask, “Can we play this again soon?” However, aside from students, some people do wonder, “Why play games in a class?” I think it is important to articulate the value of game playing for myself, my students, colleagues, parents, and others. Over the years, I have come up with my own list of the top five reasons I believe game playing is a powerful instructional tool.

This eBook is adapted from Lauren Davis' online blog series Comments on the Common Core In this series, Lauren shares her insights and opinions on the Common Core State Standards and keeps readers apprised of new developments.

Readers are invited to provide their own opinions and comments in the comments section of each blog post, which goes live two Wednesdays a month.

Also Included: You'll get a print-ready version of the popular infographic 10 Tips for Teaching Grammar According to the Common Core.

Download Now >>

Vocabulary at the Core: Teaching the Common Core State Standards, by Amy Benjamin and John T. Crow, is the definitive guide for every teacher engaged in helping students learn essential academic vocabulary. In this tip, Benjamin and Crow identify four categories of words that can comprise your vocabulary instruction to answer the question: What words do we teach?

A key factor in explicit vocabulary instruction is deciding which words to target. We certainly can’t teach every new word that students encounter, especially in an English class, where much of their assigned literature is studded with archaic words, allusions, and what the Medieval poet John Lydgate fondly refers to as “aureate” words. These would be words that, literally translated, have a “golden hue” to them—precious gems of words, glittering with their own rarity...

The following guest blog post was written by PJ Caposey, author of Building a Culture of Support: Strategies for School Leaders. PJ is the principal of Oregon High School and can be found on Twitter @principalpc.

This will be the fourth and final installment on this blog series trying to answer the question, “What is school for if it is no longer the place to go to acquire knowledge?” The responses to this prompt have been varied, mildly divergent, and many times brilliant. Thank you to @timfarquer, @bcurrie5, @RabbiRoss, @MrsCBunton, @ScottRRocco, and @PrincipalBrent for their contributions. While today may be the last of the formal series run through Eye On Education I encourage all of us as educators to continue to ponder the question and look toward the future in order to ensure we provide the best possible service and support to our students and community.

Teaching Matters (2nd Edition): How to Keep Your Passion and Thrive in Today's Classroom, by Todd Whitaker and Beth Whitaker offers practicle advice on working with colleagues for inspiration, using social media to connect to other professionals, and adding fresh new appeal to your lessons. This infographic, adapted from Chapter 16, offers 8 ways you can make your teaching sparkle to keep learners engaged with your lessons.

The following blog post is part of a blog series called "Comments on the Common Core," written by Eye On Education's Senior Editor, Lauren Davis. For more insight from Lauren Davis, check out her book series Common Core Literacy Lesson Plans: Ready-to-Use Resources.

Ten years ago, when I was in grad school studying education, the whole language approach was all the rage. I was taught that we didn’t need to teach phonics explicitly through drills; students would naturally pick up on consonant and vowel sounds and patterns through reading. But now the Common Core is bringing phonics back. According to the Common Core’s Reading Standards for Grades K–5, students need to learn...

In Rigor in Your School: A Toolkit for Leaders, authors, educators, and consultants Ronald Williamson and Barbara R. Blackburn provide tools to raise the level of rigor in your school and dramatically improve student learning. This tip identifies four necessary steps to effectively manage data in order to effect a positive change in your school or district.

When we sign a contract and call ourselves “teacher,” we have accepted the profound responsibility of being a role model to every one of our students. Students need role models, and they seek them out in their lives. Think back to your own role models. We all had them...

Common Core Literacy Lesson Plans: Ready-to-Use Resources, K-5 by Lauren Davis is an easy-to-use guide which contains 25 model lesson plans for middle school teachers. In addition to identifying the Common Core State Standards covered, each lesson includes differentiation ideas, rubrics, and scoring guides. This lesson is designed to meet Writing Standards 4,6, and 10 and Speaking and Listening Standard 4.

Overview
Students are asked to learn multiple-meaning words from kindergarten onward. With that in mind, you can adapt this lesson to any elementary grade level by choosing a list of multiple-meaning words that your students need to learn or review...

Everyone knows that pi is an irrational and transcendental number, which means it will continue infinitely without repetition or pattern. The ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter is roughly 3.14159, which is why Pi Day is fittingly celebrated on March 14th, or 3/14.

Celebrate math with your students this week with these fun Pi Day activities!

Math Intervention: Building Number Power with Formative Assessments, Differentiation, and Games (Grades PreK-2 and Grades 3-5) offers successful math interventions and RTI connections for use in small groups or one-on-one instruction. In this tip, Jennifer Taylor-Cox provides a game that can be used for students in PreK-5 to teach and reinforce the concepts of one-to-one correspondence and subtraction.