Teaching Strategies and Research Archives

Organize Your Email Inbox to Reduce Stress

Organize Your Email Inbox to Reduce Stress

Having a plan to organize my email inbox helps reduce my stress levels so I can be more productive and present in other ways. I was reading about it and came across a helpful blog on “Inbox Zero” that has helped me over the past several years (Davies, 2022). I hope you’ll join me in [...]

By Heather Erwin|2023-05-24T15:00:21+00:00May 24th, 2023|Categories: Teaching|0 Comments

Student Voices Related to Moving While Learning

Student Voices Related to Moving While Learning

If you’re reading this, you probably value your students’ perspectives and you are interested in offering physical activity opportunities for them. While many studies have been conducted to show support for classroom physical activity, most of them report on the amount of physical activity the breaks provide for students and/or how the physical activity relates [...]

By Heather Erwin|2023-03-15T17:22:27+00:00March 15th, 2023|Categories: Teaching|0 Comments

A Comfortable Outdoor Writing Surface for Students

A Comfortable Outdoor Writing Surface for Students

Mrs. Val Seath was teaching her 2nd grade class outside when she noticed her students having a hard time comfortably writing. Their papers and clothes were getting wet from the dew, students had to sit on hard surfaces, and assignments were flapping in the wind. With learning outside becoming more frequent for her class, she [...]

By Moving Minds|2022-08-04T21:11:06+00:00June 21st, 2022|Categories: Active and Flexible Seating, Teaching|0 Comments

Teacher’s Perspective: How Elementary Students Actually Respond to Active Classrooms

Teacher’s Perspective: How Elementary Students Actually Respond to Active Classrooms

Teachers often fall along a continuum of integrating movement in their classrooms, ranging from fully comfortable to extremely hesitant, for a variety of reasons. It’s my goal, as a teacher educator, to try to move all pre-service and in-service teachers down the spectrum to the “fully comfortable” side. As part of a university class that [...]

By Heather Erwin|2022-05-10T16:58:39+00:00May 10th, 2022|Categories: Active and Flexible Seating, Teaching|Tags: active classroom, active seating, classroom activity, flexible seating, teaching|0 Comments

Incorporating Students with Special Needs into Movement Breaks

Incorporating Students with Special Needs into Movement Breaks

All students are special in their own ways. Some have more difficulty listening and following directions while others may struggle to move their bodies the way they want to. When you give your class the chance to move, it’s important to make activity as accessible to all students to the best extent possible. Often, it [...]

By Heather Erwin|2022-03-04T15:32:25+00:00March 4th, 2022|Categories: Active and Flexible Seating, Active Classroom Management, Teaching|Tags: active classroom, active seating, Activity ideas, flexible seating, student health, teaching|0 Comments

Classroom Predictions for 2022

Classroom Predictions for 2022

The fall semester seemed to roll in this year like a freight train. So many questions were still pending about COVID. Will there be a vaccine for all students? Will it still be an issue with a vaccine for adults? Can classrooms go back to “normal” with less focus on distancing and more focus on [...]

By Matt Levine|2022-08-04T21:05:36+00:00October 15th, 2021|Categories: Teaching|Tags: Active Classroom Startegies, classroom activity, classroom challenges, classroom funding, federal funding, school funding|0 Comments

The Impact of Physically Distanced Spaces on Student Activity

The Impact of Physically Distanced Spaces on Student Activity

As schools reconvened or are reconvening students back in a face-to-face environment, many schools have placed students in “bubbles” during class. These may consist of 10’x10’ spaces that are marked off by floor tape, in which students are supposed to remain in their spots throughout the class period, if possible. It is probable that this [...]

By Heather Erwin|2021-07-07T18:41:48+00:00July 7th, 2021|Categories: Teaching|Tags: active classroom, active seating, classroom activity, student health, teaching|0 Comments

ABCs of Classroom Physical Activity

ABCs of Classroom Physical Activity

Don’t let the social and physical distancing protocols stop you from allowing your students to engage in classroom physical activity! If there’s anything we’ve learned from the pandemic, it’s that youth and adults alike need to move and get fresh air. I’m sharing some simple ABCs for integrating physical activity in your classroom with appropriate [...]

By Heather Erwin|2022-08-04T20:32:42+00:00April 22nd, 2021|Categories: Active and Flexible Seating, Teaching|Tags: active classroom, classroom activity, physical activity|0 Comments

How to Incorporate Active Learning at Home

How to Incorporate Active Learning at Home

Since Thanksgiving Break, our kindergartner has been distance learning. And, while we are headed back to a more normal elementary school experience in Minnesota, we still have had to make adjustments to our home and to our daughter’s learning space to provide her with the best opportunity to be successful in school. The added challenge as a parent now working from [...]

By Matt Levine|2022-08-04T20:53:03+00:00February 2nd, 2021|Categories: Active and Flexible Seating, At-Home Activities & Resources, Teaching|0 Comments

Social Distancing in a Kinesthetic Classroom

Social Distancing in a Kinesthetic Classroom

Recently our team was recruited to design a secondary classroom for a partner in the Midwest. Not just any classroom though—this one would have to take social distancing into account while considering a headcount of nearly 20 students. The space was a typical 25’ x 25’ classroom that needs to promote learning. When speaking with [...]

By Matt Levine|2022-08-04T20:33:55+00:00June 16th, 2020|Categories: Active and Flexible Seating, Teaching|0 Comments