Family Science Night: Fun Tips, Activities, and Ideas is a practical, readable guide for teachers, school leaders, and parent/teacher associations that shows how to plan fun, hands-on science nights. Shelley S. Connell provides easy-to-implement, content-rich tips and ideas that will cultivate prositive attitudes toward science. This tip, Bubble Glove, will allow students to experiment with bouncing bubbles on a glove and understand that certain ingredients can make strong bubbles.

In November of 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed the King Holiday Bill into law. This bill sets aside the third Monday in January as a federal holiday (the date falls near his birthday, which was on January 15th). This date is a day to remember what Martin Luther King Jr. stood for—freedom, justice and equality for all.

In Rigor is NOT A Four-Letter Word, 2nd Edition, Barbara Blackbun explains how to increase rigor so that all students can each higher levels of learning. This tip focuses on using the Common Core State Standards' focus on text complexity as a meanss to increase rigor in your classroom.

To increase rigor related to text selection, it is valuable first to simply look at whether or not your students are reading texts that challenge them. ou’re looking for a balance: Material should be difficult enough that students are learning something new, but not so hard that they give up. If you like to play basketball, you’ll improve if you play against someone who is better than you. But, if you play against the most talented NBA star, you’ll learn less because you are overwhelmed by his advanced skill level...

The following blog post was written by Amy Benjamin.To read more newsworthy blog posts from Eye On Education, subscribe to our Insights eNewsletters.

Everyone knows the story of the young man carrying a violin case, walking down the street in Manhattan. He stops a fellow pedestrian and politely asks, "Excuse me, but could you please tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall?" And the man replies: "Practice! Practice! Practice!"

The only real predictability in teaching is the fact that it is unpredictable. Get accustomed to it. Don't let yourself get bent out of shape by things over which you have no control. Be flexible. If you don't learn to bend...

Bryan Harris is the Director of Professional Development and Public Relations for the Casa Grande Elementary School District in Casa Grande, AZ. His dynamic and practical presentations make him a sought after speaker and consultant. He has presented to thousands of educators across the country on the topics of student engagement, classroom management, motivation, and brain-based learning.

In this video podcast, Bryan discusses classroom management strategies that fulfill the Common Core State Standards.

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, an adjunct professor in the educational leadership department for Aurora University, and he is currently pursuing his Doctoral degree through Western Illinois University. He can be found on Twitter @principalpc, and he is a guest blogger for many websites such as ASCD, Edutopia, and Test Soup.

Assessing Critical Thinking in Middle and High Schools: Meeting the Common Core, by Rebecca Stobaugh is a practical, very effective resource for middle and high school teachers and curriculum leaders looking to develop the skills necessary to design instructional tasks and assessments that engage students in higher-level critical thinking, as recommended by the Common Core State Standards. This infographic outlines the six steps of Bloom's Taxonomy and provides examples of in-class instruction and assessment at each level.

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.

I often blog about how to teach the Common Core State Standards. There are many things I like about the standards, such as the emphasis on teaching students to discover knowledge and think independently. When I was in school, I was mostly just “given” knowledge. I memorized facts and then forgot them right after the test. I like how the standards emphasis research so that students learn how to find knowledge on their own. That gives them a tool they can use later in life.

Teaching Practices from America's Best Urban Schools: A Guide for School and Classroom Leaders by Joseph F. Johnson, Lynne G. Perez, and Cynthia L. Uline  gives principals, teachers, and school administrators a direct, inside look at instructional practices from top award-winning urban schools. The authors provide detailed examples and analyses of these practices, and successfully demystify the achievement of these schools.

They offer practical guides to help educators apply these successful practices in their own schools. This tip identifies five common challenges that arise when leaders are attempting to engage in a pedagogical change, and provides a possible solution for each challenge.

Activities, Games, and Assessment Strategies for the Foreign Language Classroom by Amy Buttner provides easy-to-use resources to help you write fun lesson plans. This tip, Imaginary Room, allows students to practice their vocabulary and grammatical skills by asking yes or no questions to determine the imaginary room their partner is thinking of.

The following guest post was written by Rebekah Stathakis, author of A Good Start:147 Warm-Up Activities for Spanish Class. This is the third in a five-part series about classroom strategies for staying in the target language.

Staying in the target language can be challenging. Even if, as world language teachers, we believe wholeheartedly that using the target language almost exclusively is ideal, it is not an easy goal. There are many times when I would think, “Wouldn’t it be faster/easier/nice to just say this in English?!” The following strategies can help you stay in the target language and minimize those times when you want to just resort to English...

Frank Buck served as a teacher, principal, and central office administrator during a career in education spanning almost 30 years. He credits strong skills in organization and time management with success at all levels along the way.

In this video, Frank Buck explains how you can use reQall to set reminders and to dos.

Happy New Year! In our monthly eNews, we bring you the latest education news, resources, and classroom ideas from the Eye On Education Blog and other blogs we read. Click below for our favorite educational blog posts from the past month.

Did you know that January is considered International Creativity Month? This month remind your students about the importance of being creative. Give your students the ability to creatively express themselves by providing various options for a particular class assignment. For example, instead of assigning the same writing assignment to every student...