GRIT: Balancing a Student’s Capacity to Grow & Pass a State-Mandated Test

Source                                 If you teach a tested subject like me, February seems to be the month that everyone starts becoming “invested” in what you are doing in the classroom and how it is preparing our students to pass their TEST. This time of year students are taking “field tests” and “benchmark tests” in addition to […]

Writing Guides: The Gift That Keeps Giving Year After Year  

Source                              Christmas is my favorite season. I love this time of year because I pride myself on being a great gift giver. There is no greater satisfaction in life than watching my loved one open their gift and the look of surprise, mixed with confusion wash over their face as they look up at me […]

  A Reading/Writing Road Map for Those Hard-To-Schedule Days    

Source  Friends, we made it!! Shocktober is in the rearview mirror and Thanksgiving break can be seen on the horizon. There is nothing I love more than the week leading up to a break for two reasons: 1. Umm… it’s THE break (no cap) and 2. It’s a week full of students coming and going […]

 It’s complicated… but does it have to be?

How The American Teenager project got my students talking and helped me get to know them better.                         Source About this time eight years ago I was searching for help.  I had entered the world of education with a parade, waving a banner saying, “Look out students, this teacher is going to change your life!” It […]