  Imagine being a child in 2nd grade, and your passionate teacher is reading, The One and Only Ivan by Applegate.K., out loud to your class. Your classmates surround you and every student has a copy of the book in their hands. Untouched, unscathed, unblemished… You crack the cover open to this brand new book and your boisterous teacher hands you all a pencil and says, “Friends, we’re not going to just read this book, nor are these books mine. You're holding in your hands your own sacred copy of “The One and Only Ivan!” Students gasp! “Also, that magical pencil in your hand is going to be writing all over in your book too! Students gasp louder! “Remember class, good readers ask questions and think about their thinking. Anytime you have a thought, or see a line filled with figurative language… ANNOTATE!” Reaching standards, engaging your students, and modeling for them firsthand… This is confronting the norm, this is challenging the norm, and this is definitely disrupting the norm! GOOD. GREAT. GRAND. We love it that way. “You must make a disturbance to make a change,” -IntegratED How do we make a difference? How do we change? How do we script and not follow the script? THE MINDSET…
“You must have a positive/growth mindset and you must do it all with a purpose.”
In this profession, we can’t grow stagnant. We have to confront our norms, reflect on our teaching, and make goals to change our classrooms to empower our kids. THE KIDS COME FIRST! Question of the day: How would you learn best? Would you learn best from a teacher following a teacher's manual every single day? “Class, turn to page 28. We are on module 4, lesson 3 today”… ZZZZZZ! Or would you learn best from teachers who backward map, know their standards, and will do anything in their power to get you to learn them?  With the Integrated Framework, we’re able to creatively teach all standards for science/social studies, reading, writing, and math. We integrate them to make one smooth transition to the school day. First, find something you can INTEGRATE into your teaching that’s different from the others. Something that you’re passionate about. BE CREATIVE! You’ll also have to backwards map. Take a microscopic lens to your standards and look at your whole school year in advance for each core subject. Backwards mapping involves setting GOALS and lessons that align with the standards. We collaboratively work together in a magical way that allows us to integrate multiple subjects into a model that is much different than the normal classroom model. “You’re changing it up in the classroom. Your classroom door is open to the world, you’re doing your thing, kids are in the middle of it!” The beauty of it is, that some of your reluctant students who don’t want to write are writing like future authors. The ones who didn’t want to sit down for math are now being mathematicians, the ones that always go to the bathroom during reading time are finding out that books are interesting and they can’t set their books down! All of a sudden, their bladders can wait just a little bit longer! “Your students are growing, you’re seeing light bulb moments go off all day. When it works, it works… Do it all with a PURPOSE!” How can you start tomorrow? No more excuses, it’s all right here! You can get your FREE IntegratED Planner and a copy of our framework that we use to plan OUR IntegratED Units. Be BRAVE. Take RISKS. Be CREATIVE! Your PURPOSE will help students find theirs! Check out our Vodcast on this topic on our YouTube Channel @toteachornottoteach.
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AuthorMegan and Kara are educational leaders, professional development experts, and current classroom teachers who are improving the way instruction is being delivered in the standard classroom. Archives
May 2025
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