Elementary science has the potential for wonder. Young children are naturally curious, and science is a great way to satisfy that curiosity.  And if it’s done right, elementary school science can lay the foundation for science understanding throughout life. There are just a few basic principles that need to be stressed over and over without sucking the fun out of the process. While we all agree that science is the way for kids to get answers to pressing questions they wonder about, teachers also know that there are underlying skills for focus, as well. Good science lessons and activities ..read more

Science is a subject as broad as it is deep, meaning you’ll never need to worry about running out of material to study or resources to help you out! Pick any topic, and you’ll find enough experts, studies, and articles to fill a course load for an entire school, let alone 1 student. But unlike some subjects like math or language arts, science often steps into territories that some people might find, shall we say, a little taboo. While these topics can spark some passionate discourse in classrooms, they might also make some students, parents, and teachers uncomfortable depending on how it’s br ..read more

Let’s be honest: studying is hard. No matter what class you’re in or what skill you have with any particular subject, sitting down and putting your mind to work can be as exhausting as any midterm or final. Studying math is no exception. And while it’s true that math can be harder for some students than others, this doesn’t mean it’s outright impossible to learn math even if you have more of an English or Social Studies-focused mind. At Twine, we believe every student can excel at any subject—all it takes are some simple habits you can learn right here. Whether it’s memorizing the multiplicat ..read more

If you’re someone who enjoys asking questions, this post will definitely inspire you to keep being curious!  Your science teachers are valuable resources – so why not spark a good talk with them? From Physics, to Biology, to Computer Science, we’ve put together some questions which could get you and your teacher wondering about the universe we live in! Elementary School What would happen if the Earth stopped spinning? You might have learned that the Earth is spinning in school. You might also have learned that the spinning of the Earth causes the day and night cycle. But have you ever won ..read more

Bringing textbook concepts to life in your classroom can be difficult, especially when it comes to social studies since it doesn’t have the obvious experiments that a science class might have, for example. We’ve compiled a list of 14 ideas you can use in your classroom to get students involved in social studies and help them engage with the material in exciting ways. DOUGH MAPS For this project, you’ll help students demonstrate their knowledge of physical geography by creating maps. First, you’ll need to print the outlines of the regions/states/countries that your students will build their dou ..read more

We’re heading toward the mid-point of the school year and with that comes the paperwork and process that go along with ending one semester and starting another. The Workflows+ add-on is focused on making these tasks easier — from student balance tracking and parent-teacher conference scheduling to student community service tracking. For schools that want to track student community service hours, the process can be complex. Not only do you need to know the number of hours completed, but you have to determine where the hours were done, whether they are with an eligible organization and who the s ..read more

You might have already read about Twine’s ability to help you with student balance tracking as part of the Workflows+ add-on, but there are several other school processes you can simplify with this add-on, including parent-teacher conference scheduling. While Twine and Edsby make communicating with parents on a regular basis easy, there’s still a place and time for parent-teacher conferences, where you can meet with parents for deeper discussions. Scheduling conferences can be time-consuming for both parents and teachers and leaves everyone scrambling to be at the right place at the right time ..read more

One of the key things that makes private schools unique is the collection of tuition and fees from students and their families. This is crucial to keeping the school up and running, but can be a daunting task for school administrators.   One feature included in the Twine Workflows+ add-on is student balance tracking. From inside Twine, administrators can choose “Student Billing” and assign fees to individual students or mass assign fees to multiple students. From the Twine menu, you can also document student fee payments to one student or multiple students: You can also print student st ..read more

If you’ve used Twine/Edsby for long, you probably have encountered the vast number of parent, staff, and student communication tools available to you, from groups to messaging to the class pages themselves. There are some instances, however, where it is necessary to send out an urgent text message to all parents or staff. For these situations, we have a Twine add-on: Twine Alerts. With Twine Alerts, any staff designated as “Office Staff” or “Senior Admin” will see the Emergency Alerts application on the left side of their Edsby home page. From there, you can select “New Alert” and then add th ..read more

With a new year comes new features and improvements to our systems, based on administrator, teacher, student and parent feedback. Online testing enhancements Question sheet sharing via content panel Teachers can now add Question Sheets to the Content area of their classes. The ability to store Question Sheets in a Class enables the teacher to share a complete course with other teachers through a Professional Development or Learning Object Repository. Question Sheets created in the class can be attached to assessments to deliver an online test. The Assessment form’s Choose Question Sheet now o ..read more