“Anchor charts are a wonderful tool to document students' thinking and learning and serve as a visual reference of our learning process. They keep what we are currently learning accessible and enable students to make later connections. Anchor charts 'anchor' our learning, bring focus to a particular strategy or standard we are working on and support students during independent practice, class discussions or whenever they just need a little reminder.” -Around the Kampfire We know how vital anchor charts are and how creative teachers are finding ways to incorporate these visuals into everyday lessons. However, what do you do with all the magnificent anchor charts you have created over the year? Surely not throw them away and start from scratch?!

The Maker Movement is, we admit, a buzz-worthy phrase, but it is a movement that has the power to truly transform education and learning. After President Obama hosted the first ever White House Maker Faire this summer, more schools are working to implement maker spaces in their own halls.

What comes to mind when someone speaks of Career and Technical Education? What connotations does that phrase hold in the education world? Are students eager to enroll CTE programs, or do they hesitate, wondering if CTE will help with college readiness? Enter the new players in Career and Technical Education, those who understand the rapidly evolving and complicated choices students will face, and the equally evolving and complicated industries they will enter. Enter high-quality CTE.

Did you see our last post on the Maker Movement? Still wondering what it is and what the movement's implication is for education? We created our newest white paper to answer these questions and more.

Daily Genius came up with this awesome infographic detailing how visuals help us learn last month, and this month Edudemic also covered the story. We were inspired by the facts and figures related to visual learning, and have listed them in a reader-friendly fashion below. The original inforgraphic is also included. Enjoy!

Julia Cremin is a 6th grade Reading, Language Arts and Math teacher at O'Keeffe Middle School in Madison, WI. She is certified in Elementary Education (grades 1-9) with a minor in Mathematics. This is her fourth year teaching middle school.

Parent-teacher communication is vital to the success of any student, and it is important to begin those relationships early in the year. As a teacher, making yourself accessible and easy to get into contact with is a great gesture to parents.

We asked one of our favorite guest bloggers, Julia Cremin, to share her reflections as a teacher on summer break. This is the final of her three-part "Summer Break" series. Read Part I here, and Part II here.

We asked one of our favorite guest bloggers, Julia Cremin, to share her reflections as a teacher on summer break. This is the second in her three-part "Summer Break" series. Read Part I here.

VariQuest's blog is open to educators across the country who are interested in sharing their ideas, stories and opinions with our network of teachers, administrators and more. If you have something you would like to share, please let us know! Email your ideas to variquest@variquest.com