Last month I started what will (hopefully) be a semester-long series of my attempts to tackle all of the messy, controversial real world happenings with my students in a way that somehow creates space for real dialogue, pushes students to consider other perspectives, but also protects vulnerable voices…and does it in a largely virtual space. […]
I wasn’t expecting to start my 19th year teaching feeling this unprepared. Not the juggling of virtual and face-to-face hybrid teaching–I’ll bungle my way through that chaos, and it will be fine (right? Somebody assure me it will be fine). No, my feelings of unpreparedness come from all the other chaos in the world: racial […]
We are back with another buddy post! The more we talk about what building authentic relationships with our writers looks like in our classrooms, the more we realize we have similar strategies that work with our different populations. This month we’re tackling low stakes writing and how we use it to create a culture of […]
January is a tough time of year for me. The holidays are over, the weather is just meh in Michigan, and the craziness of midterms and starting a new semester makes my room feel like chaos. I spent all fall writing my Moving Writers posts about balance in the ELA classroom and, at this point, […]
My husband is fond of using the phrase “Read the room” with our children. Have you seen your mother’s face? Now isn’t the time to whine. Read the room. Did you notice the dishes in the sink, laundry piled on the couch, and overflowing garbage can when you asked if you could go to your […]
Last June I discovered a woefully neglected plant in my house. My husband urged me to toss it out, but I was sure I could bring it back to life. Sure enough, by August, a little sun and tlc had it flourishing again. I posted the comparison pic on Twitter and someone pointed out that […]
As is our habit, we are taking the summer away from the blog to read, write, and recharge. We’ll be back in late August with new content, but for the summer, let’s take a journey down memory lane as we visit our ten most-read posts from the previous school year! Since the beginning of the […]
All year I’ve been writing about teaching research writing. I’ve been teaching two research-heavy classes (AP Seminar and a class called The Incubator) and it’s forced me to zero in on what I’m doing to help my students see the relevance of developing solid research skills. It has pushed me to think about the why […]
Last year about this time, this article from the New York Times showed up in my Twitter feed. I clicked on it because I was intrigued by the title (“Extensive Data Shows Punishing Reach of Racism for Black Boys”) but when I realized that the article was all moving data, I knew my students would […]
Early in the school year, my Runner’s World magazine showed up in my mailbox with a new column. It’s called “How to Be a Runner” and I think it’s incredibly clever. The bulk of the column is a two-column list where the writer highlights a choice. Treadmill or Outside? Group or Solo? Some choices are […]
