Shaped

A community-driven blog supporting educators, building lifelong learners, and shaping the future of education.* 

 

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St patricks day classroom activities hero

Use these St. Patrick's Day activities for elementary and middle school to celebrate and teach your students about the history of the holiday.

Jordan Friedman
Former Shaped Editor

Richard Blankman
Shaped Executive Editor

Oral communication2

Why is public speaking important for students? Teaching oral communication can improve your classroom activities and equip students with lifelong skills.

Erik Palmer
Program Consultant, Into Reading and Into Literature

WF1288378 Shaped 2020 Blog Halloween Math Activities Hero Literature

Get your ELA class into the spirit with these fun Halloween activities for middle school and high school students, and learn from a few masters of horror how to really make those spines tingle and those bones shake.

Ali Habashi
Former Shaped Editor

Brenda Iasevoli
Shaped Executive Editor

Protestant reformation lesson plan martin luther

Download our Protestant Reformation lesson plan to teach your students about this period of upheaval in Europe. Then, use the Protestant Reformation activities for middle school and high school to encourage critical thinking through writing and primary source analysis.

Shaped Staff

30 60 I US History Cold War

Use these Cold War lesson plans and activities for middle school and high school to teach students about the decades-long period of geopolitical tensions between the United States and Soviet Union.

Shaped Staff

Fashion hero image

Learn about the role of mathematics in fashion design with the "Math Meets Fashion" episode of HMH's Math at Work web series.

Shaped Staff

WF1318697 Teaching Multiplication Division Arrays graphics 2025 Update hero

Use this lesson to teach students array multiplication, array division, along with other visual aids to show the relationship between multiplication and division.

Richard Blankman
Shaped Executive Editor

Virtual rewards students online classroom hero animated

Looking for ideas for virtual rewards for students in the online classroom? Try these incentives to ensure students have fun in the online classroom. These ideas offer ways to reward individual students or entire classes.

Richard Blankman
Shaped Executive Editor

WF1103253 Shaped 2020 Blog Post Cellphones in Class hero

Explore suggestions for what you can do differently to achieve a better result when it comes to managing student use of cellphones in classrooms.

Weston Kieschnick
Associate Partner, ICLE

WF2161378 Tips for Helping Your Child with Math at Home Hero Opt 4

Explore tips for parents, caregivers, and educators who are helping children with math at home but don't feel comfortable or competent in the discipline.

Richard Blankman
Shaped Executive Editor

Student reading

Support students with these seven tips to maximize middle school and high school reading intervention and help your students become better readers.

Shelley Branine
Instructional Coach, HMH

WF2161378 Math Talk Moves Engaging Students Through Discussion Hero

Students should be engaged in solving and discussing tasks that promote reasoning and problem solving.

Dr. Matthew R. Larson
Past President, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM); Senior Fellow, Math Solutions

Renaissance lesson plan

Use our Renaissance lesson plan and activities for middle school and high school to teach your students about this era of cultural “rebirth” in the 14th to 17th centuries.

Jordan Friedman
Former Shaped Editor

WF1309635 Shaped 2021 Blog Post Math at The Met Hero

Here are three specific ways that teaching math through art from The Met can enhance your students’ learning experience.

Richard Blankman
Shaped Executive Editor

WF1347919 Teaching Order Operations Rules eduplace Update hero

Use this lesson to teach students about the order of operations: complete operations in parentheses, multiply and divide from left to right, and add and subtract from left to right.

Richard Blankman
Shaped Executive Editor

WF1309654 Hero 3

When is National School Counseling Week in 2025? Explore counselor appreciation week ideas for your school to help celebrate.

Jordan Friedman
Former Shaped Editor

Teaching rational numbers decimals fractions hero edited

Use this lesson to teach students about rational numbers, including decimals, fractions, and integers.

Richard Blankman
Shaped Executive Editor

How to write a rap

Teach your students how to write a rap with Dr. Chris Emdin using this rap lesson plan, complete with a writing template, rubric, and teacher guide.

Shaped Staff

*The views expressed in our blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of HMH.