News & Blog

Written by Dr. Sandra Markowitz, an experienced educator with 17 years in the field of Instructional Technology. Passionate about assistive technology, Universal Design for Learning, instructional strategies, and workflow solutions, Sandra brings innovative approaches to her teaching. As the end of the school…

By Ariel Speck For many of us educators, there is a similar pattern happening around this time of year: classroom instruction as we know it changes from Tier 1 instruction, riotous classroom discussions, math problems that take all class to collaboratively solve to test prep. For most of…

The Texas Success Initiative (otherwise known as the TSI) was initially established in 2003, aiming to assess the academic skills of incoming college students across the Lone Star State. The TSI required students to complete assessments in three standalone subject areas: mathematics, reading, and writing, helping to place those…

Dive into the Solar Eclipse with our FREE instructional activity! Download now to encourage students to observe and describe the mesmerizing details of a solar eclipse.

Are you a K-12 educator looking for new ways to engage your students? Or new ways to simplify your daily instructional planning? Check out these practical and proven strategies that can enhance student engagement while streamlining daily instruction. From active learning techniques to thoughtful planning tips, these practices are designed to produce highly engaging learning experiences in any classroom setting. 

We’ve heard many Florida educators express frustration over the fact that the new Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST) in ELA and math does not provide benchmark data at the individual student level. The FAST reports are divided into groups of related Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking (B.E.S.T.), called…

Are you a K-12 educator looking for new ways to engage your students? Or new ways to simplify your daily instructional planning? Check out these practical and proven strategies that can enhance student engagement while streamlining daily instruction. From active learning techniques to thoughtful planning tips, these practices are designed to produce highly engaging learning experiences in any classroom setting. 

Walking into many elementary and middle school libraries today, it is not uncommon to see books organized by letters, a sequence of numbers, or a color code. Teachers encourage students to “choose a book at their level!” and in theory, this is a good thing — you are more…

Every year, it feels like testing season sneaks up on us. We’re diligent in providing strong educational opportunities for students, using interventions, making data-driven decisions, trying to make learning fun, and then all of a sudden — high-stakes testing is upon us. Many of us find ourselves reiterating test-taking strategies to students, using acronyms to help them remember strategies and formulas, and plying them with candy to get them to sit through drills. Some schools even pause educational content for more intensive test prep.