Authored by Katie Hart and Chloe Baum Katie Hart and Chloe Baum are both students at the University of Kentucky. They both graduated in December 2025 with their Bachelor of Arts in Education for Secondary English Education. Now, they are working towards their Master’s degree in the Master’s with Initial Certification program with a specialization […]
Authored by Katherine Oliver What is the biggest fear incoming teachers have when preparing for their first classroom? While there may seem to be a myriad of options from poor classroom management to a student uprising, at the heart of every worry is the ability to get student buy-in. Student engagement, behavior, and work ethic […]
Chances are if you’re reading this you are already an inquiry teacher who trusts IDM as a process for student engagement and learning. A series of past posts has already detailed the use of questions, tasks, and sources in specific blueprints for lowering barriers to entry for student engagement. But, how do I balance these […]
Many social studies teachers get lost in source selection. We can’t be blamed for it. It’s a hazard of the job. Our passion for learning and for social studies instruction leads us down rabbit holes that force us to make difficult instructional choices about what to share with students and what sources best fit the […]
Oftentimes the best learning happens in the most organic and natural ways. Learning happens when we are genuine. Too often it is easy to let complicated procedures or a set of rules get in the way of that. We see a really cool activity that involves setting up a crime scene in our classroom and […]
Student engagement fluctuates for a variety of reasons, some of the most difficult to control being personal, which often leads to greater barriers to entry. We can think about personal barriers to entry as any internal or external factor impacting a student’s access to a lesson, often beyond the teacher’s control. These might include who […]