Middle School
A collection of lessons and activities from Inspired Teaching to foster authentically engaging learning with students and deepen teachers' understanding of their role in the classroom.
Whether you teach early childhood or calculus, these award-winning lessons and activities—informed by 30 years of work with thousands of educators—authentically engage, spark curiosity, build community, and support academic success in your classroom. The self-led teacher assessment tools challenge you to shift your role from deliverer of information to Instigator of Thought, providing small steps with big payoff for reinvigorating your practice and rediscovering your why.
Student-Led Museum Tour
In this activity, students share their observations after studying a piece of art. This simple process develops emerging expertise and builds mutual respect through sharing what they have learned.
Coloring Our Emotions
Talking about feelings is vital to building mutual respect in the classroom. Considering feelings in a visual way can deepen that discussion.
Interesting, Important, Useful
A key to building mutual respect in your classroom is recognizing and appreciating what your students find important.
3 Closing Activities to Connect with Families
These closing activities are designed to offer a back-and-forth between a student’s family and the classroom. They center students’ voices rather than that of the teacher.
8 Closing Activities to Build Classroom Community
Every minute of class is an opportunity to build community but with some intention, those last minutes of class can be a great time to deepen relationships.
5 Closing Activities to Give You Feedback on Your Lesson
There are lots of ways to gauge how well a lesson went in just the last few minutes of class and these forms of feedback can sometimes even be fun.
5 Closing Activities to Reinforce Learning
Having students reflect on what they’ve learned and apply that knowledge in new ways can be critical to getting the learning to stick.
4 Ways to Welcome Students in the Door
The very first thing we say to students as they enter class can set the tone for all that follows.
4 Ways to Start Class With Movement
Starting class with movement can make a world of difference in focus and attention.
4 Ways to Start Class With Breathing and Mindfulness
Starting class with stillness, attention and deep breathing can set a peaceful tone for your day.
4 Ways to Connect Warm-Ups to Content
It’s great when you can connect your class opener to content and there are lots of quick and simple ways to do that.
4 Ways to Build Community
The core of community building is about being seen, heard, known, and appreciated for who you are.
