Author Archives: Aaron Grossman

About Aaron Grossman

I am a 5th grade teacher at Roy Gomm Elementary in Reno, Nevada. I started working with elementary students as part of the Montana Reads program and AmeriCorps. In 2001, after graduating from the University of Montana and moving to Reno, Nevada, I student taught at Rita Cannan Elementary before receiving a 6th grade position at Veterans Elementary. I moved out of the classroom to be a Literacy Coordinator, then an Instructional Coach, and finally a School Improvement Program Coordinator. In 2011, I began working on the Nevada Academic Content Standards in the district’s Curriculum & Instruction Department. I returned to the classroom for the 2015-2016 school year to teach 4th grade at Huffaker Elementary. Before returning to the classroom, I helped develop the Core Task Project that has been featured by National Public Radio, the Gates Foundation, American Radio Works, Eduwonk, the Fordham Institute, Vox, and the Center for American Progress. In 2014, I received the Leader to Learn From Award for my teacher-centered initiative and work to bring college, career, and civics ready outcomes into Northern Nevada classrooms (here). In 2015, I was appointed by Governor Sandoval serve on the Statewide RPDP Council. The same year, Nevada’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction Steve Canavero placed me on the state’s State Improvement Team. This year I will be part of the National Council on Teacher Quality’s Teacher Advisory Group. I am Google Certified Educator and a Nevada Teacher Ambassador. I believe strongly that teaching content is teaching reading and I make sure my students have ample opportunities to work with social studies, history, science and art outcomes. I do what I can to blend the learning for my students and this blog is part of that effort. You can contact me at coretaskproject@gmail.com

We’ve Moved

As the work around the Core Task Project faded, new endeavors, largely based on working in classrooms, required a new website. That space is http://www.justtwoteachers.com. If you are here for resources, and keep running into dead links, your best bet … Continue reading

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Emergency Sub Plans

I think every classroom teacher fears that because of some unexpected and dreadful event they cannot plan for an absence. Moreover, it might be the case that the teacher cannot contact the building to explain what is happening. This was … Continue reading

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Maximizing Literacy Skills with the OUT

At the Northern Nevada Council for Social Studies, I presented on using the 4th grade OUTs to maximize literacy skills with intermediate students. The 4th grade OUTs—Opening Up the Textbook—is a curricular resource matched to Nevada’s state history. Developed by … Continue reading

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Using Kohlberg’s 6 Moral Principles in the Classroom Presentation Materials

At Washoe County School District’s conference, MTSS in Action: Strengthening the Relations between Students and Educators around Academic and Behavior Performance, I shared a session on using Kohlberg’s 6 Moral Principles in the classroom. The idea came from former classroom … Continue reading

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Question Formulation Technique & Genius Hour

Thank you to Washoe’s STEM Coordinator Kelly Barber for telling me about http://rightquestion.org/. I had emailed and asked about getting started with a Genius Hour in my classroom and she suggested I take a look at the website. This got … Continue reading

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Read by Grade Three in WCSD

This afternoon, staff from Washoe County presented on the Read by Grade Three state initiative during the Board of Trustees meeting. Begin at 2:58:28 to gain some context and clarity on how the district plans to navigate the law and … Continue reading

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WCSD Overcrowding & Admin Regulation 6111

There has been some buzz about the overcrowding issue in Washoe County and the implications for students and families throughout our district. The most thorough public examination of this came Tuesday when the Board heard an overview from Dr. Paul … Continue reading

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DonorsChoose.org—A Review (And a Success Story)

On Super Bowl Sunday, a few hours before the game, I created a DonorsChoose.org account and started a project. My hope was to raise $800 in order to get four Chromebooks for my classroom. Just five days later I learned … Continue reading

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20 Day Twitter Challenge #TeachNVACS

This week marks the beginning of the “20 Day Twitter Challenge.” The 20 days are an opportunity for educators to collaborate and share ideas, anecdotes, questions, pictures, and student artifacts around the implementation of the Nevada Academic Content Standards and the … Continue reading

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Using Bloomboard to Promote Professional Learning

I recently started making regular visits to the website https://next.bloomboard.com/. I like the site because professional experiences have been curated around content directly matched to the classroom. Topics include early literacy, writing, classroom management, planning, Shakespeare, blended learning, Project Based … Continue reading

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