The Productive Teacher

I use the latest in brain science research to create lessons that are engaging for students and easy for teachers.

There are tons of activities, presentations, and reading passages to help teach (and learn) a variety of topics! Click the topics to learn more!

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3 min read

Our Second Grade Phonics Scope and Sequence

Knowing what to teach and when to teach it is one of the most basic parts of planning your phonics instruction. Unfortunately, many...

2 min read

Teaching the 8 Phases of the Moon

The moon is one of those topics that all of your middle school science students will have some background knowledge around. However, to...

3 min read

How to Teach About Sound Energy

Potential and Kinetic Energy If you want to understand sound energy, first you have to know about energy. Energy is all around us. Energy...

3 min read

How to Teach What Causes Day and Night on Earth

You may think that your students all know that the Earth revolves around the Sun and day and night are caused by the Earth’s rotation,...

8 min read

Teaching Multiplication the Easy Way

Multiplication was one of my favorite things about teaching third grade. I think it stems from the fact that I did not learn the...

3 min read

How to Teach Earth’s Seasons in Middle School Science

Teaching about Earth’s seasons is a great way to integrate your science and social studies lessons. You can teach about the Earth’s...

4 min read

What are the 6 Properties of Life?

At first glance, the difference between living and nonliving things seems pretty clear, but digging deeper, it gets complicated....

4 min read

How to Teach the Theory of Plate Tectonics

I love teaching the theory of plate tectonics because I love it when history and science overlap. First, it allows us to tell a story,...

3 min read

How to Teach Food Chains and Food Webs

Food chains and food webs are one of those topics introduced during elementary school that we expand upon during middle school. Your...

2 min read

How are Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes Different?

Prokaryotes and eukaryotes are organisms made up of two basic types of cells. You may also hear them called prokaryotic and eukaryotic...

3 min read

What is the Geologic Time Scale?

What is the geologic time scale? If you are teaching Earth history, you need to help your students answer this question before they can...

3 min read

Easy Ways to Teach the Water Cycle Steps

The water cycle is one of those science topics that keeps coming back in school. Kids first learn about the water cycle steps in first...