LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

CEU courses open for enrollment

A Crash Course in ESL
Grasp pedagogy, policy and procedure for teaching and working with English language learners. This course provides a concise overview of strategies and best practices for all teachers, administrators, and support staff working with English language learners.
Take this course: Begins April 7.

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Communicating with parents, colleagues, and administrators
Effective communication is often about avoiding problems rather than solving them. These resources on communicating with parents, participating in a mentoring relationship, and working with colleagues and administrators will help you communicate effectively in a number of situations.
Format: bibliography/help
Communicating with parents
To communicate successfully with parents, be caring, professional, open, and organized.
By Kathleen Casson.
Name that tune!
This is a student/parent assignment. The students will perform selected lines from their band method books, and their parents (or responsible adults) will listen and try to name the tune.
Format: lesson plan (grade 6 Music Education)
By Mary Beth Smith.
Helping parents understand
In Math for multiple intelligences, page 5
The more ongoing, positive communication you have with parents, the more they'll be willing to work with you.
By Gretchen Buher.
Writing for the Web
How teachers can more effectively communicate information and ideas via the World Wide Web, to students, parents, colleagues, administrators, and the world.
Format: series (multiple pages)
The First Year
Essays on the author's experiences in her first year of teaching: the mistakes she made, what she learned from them, and how she used them to become a better teacher — and how other first-year teachers can, too.
Format: book (multiple pages)
Communicating with parents at the beginning of the year
In The First Year, page 1.3
Start communicating with parents at the beginning of the year, to establish a relationship before you have anything negative to say.
By Kristi Johnson Smith.
Math for multiple intelligences
How a middle-school math teacher realized she was boring and jump-started her career — and her students — by using thematic planning, emphasizing problem solving, and teaching to multiple intelligences.
Format: series (multiple pages)
African American college students, 1906
In North Carolina in the New South, page 4.7
Records of pupils at the North Carolina Colored State Normal Schools (now Winston-Salem State University, Fayetteville State University, and Elizabeth City State University), 1906, with information about parents' occupations and how students paid their expenses. Includes historical commentary.
Format: book
Writing for the web
In Writing for the Web, page 1
Why teachers need to think about how they communicate on the web.
By David Walbert.
If he's in danger of failing, at least three people need to know it
In The First Year, page 4.1
Get in touch with parents to prevent students' failure, not just to report on it.
By Kristi Johnson Smith.
Tips for parent conferences
Basic suggestions and points to keep in mind when meeting with parents.
By Mitch Katz.
Finding your audience: a primer
In Writing for the Web, page 3
Before you sit down to write something, ask yourself some questions about the people who will read it.
By David Walbert.
Managing paperwork: top priorities for organization
Suggestions for keeping track of your teaching materials, your students, and their work.
By Mitch Katz.
Pacific Islands: A profitable paradise
In CareerStart lessons: Grade seven, page 4.9
In this lesson for grade seven, students conduct research and make travel brochures for the Pacific Island targeted at specific audiences. Students discuss career possibilities related to making travel brochures.
Format: lesson plan (grade 7 Social Studies)
By Meredith Ebert.Adapted by Kenyatta Bennett and Sonya Rexrode.
Using a classroom webpage to communicate with parents
Kathleen Eveleigh keeps her parents involved in her first-grade classroom by integrating a classroom webpage with her daily instruction.
Format: article
By Sydney Brown.
John Chavis opens a school for white and black students
In North Carolina in the New Nation, page 5.3
Newspaper advertisement (1808) for a school in Raleigh, taught by John Chavis. Chavis taught white students during the day and black students at night. Includes historical commentary.
Format: newspaper
Parent contact log
Helps you keep track of which parents you have spoken with, when, and the topics of the conversation.
Format: document
New Teacher Support
Ok, so it's not all fun and games. Now what? When you decided to become a teacher, what did you think about? If you're like most people, you thought about making a difference in children's lives, about helping them learn, making them think, "touching...
Format: article/help
What does your name mean?
This lesson will enable the students to investigate the meaning of their names and discuss with their parents how they decided on their name.
Format: lesson plan (grade 2 Information Skills)
By Pam Purifoy.