Teaching Unscripted

AI is not a replacement. It’s a tool—and like any tool, its value depends on its usefulness. Educators are in the driver’s seat here, deciding first if AI can help and then how it might be used.

2026 Heinemann professional books catalog contains new and recent titles, previous titles by subject area, Heinemann classics, and indexes.

How can educators create a welcoming, liberating, and transformative environment for Latinx students? We can begin by learning to amplify the stories and identities of Latinx children.

Creating opportunities for students to justify their thinking invites learners to make sense for themselves and others in novel ways. Suggestions for teaching academic talk and sentence starters.

We are most likely to obtain the data we need through observing students. The first step in SEL data collection is to identify the specific skills you want to observe. Get suggestions on how to collect data and what to do with it within the MTSS framework.

Readers look to books in to understand the world and the better to understand themselves. But too many students grow up in book deserts. In the same way as growing up in a food desert can determine what children will or won’t eat, limited access to contemporary titles often shapes how students think about reading for pleasure.

When you start thinking about how to use AI in your teaching life, don’t begin by asking what it can replace. Instead, ask how it can help make your work more sustainable and joyful. 

Join the free Heinemann Educator Summit, September 28–October 1, 2026, and be part of a community of educators committed to keeping teaching and learning deeply human in a digital world.

Today on the podcast we are excited welcome Carla España and Luz Yadira Herrera, authors of En Comunidad: Lessons for Centering the Voices and Experiences of Bilingual Latinx Students.

The case for taking a balanced and deliberate approach to technology use in the classroom. Screens should never take the place of high-quality teaching; they should enrich it, based on student need.

As students in grades 3-5 encounter more complex concepts, there can be a tendency for instruction to shift toward rules, procedures, and memorization. Yet, without context, mathematics can quickly lose its meaning. One of the most powerful, and often underutilized, ways to provide this context is through children’s literature.

Feeling stuck between mandates and meaningful teaching? Join Heinemann authors Ellin Oliver Keene, Cris Tovani, Debbie Miller, Anne Goudvis, and Steph Harvey for a multi-event webinar to explore how to bring comprehension, thinking, and engagement back to literacy instruction.

From inconsistent instruction to growing intervention or uneven results, these patterns could point to gaps in your core math program. See what effective math materials do differently.

Learn how to use habit stacking to get more reading in. Think about your routines and how you might pair one old habit with a new one. Strategies for teaching students how to also find time in their day to enjoy reading.

Students are much more likely to learn words when they see them in context as opposed to encountering them in isolation. Kelly Gallagher outlines five ways to build vocabulary beyond test-prep and vocabulary lists.

Explore how nonfiction decodables support phonics development, build background knowledge, and help beginning readers apply skills in meaningful contexts.

Approaching SEL through the MTSS framework starts with strong Tier 1 instruction, ensuring all students have consistent opportunities to learn, practice, and apply essential skills. Watch the video for activity suggestions for each tier and goal.

The ways that we teach whole-class novels are often ineffective and alienating. Kate Roberts outlines how time, teaching methods, transfer, and text complexity are barriers to effectively teaching whole-class novels.