I promise the title is the last of the math-related humor in this piece. I’ve already profiled the big Narrative Journalism unit my PLC does every year, but I had an interesting experience today that made me think that maybe one element of that writing project is worth revisiting in a bit more detail. […]
Author: Michael Ziegler
TFMTF: Learning Through the Rabbit Hole
Instead of giving you a specific account to follow with this edition of Teaching From My Twitter Feed, I thought we’d have some fun with one my favorite Twitter joys: The Rabbit Hole. There’s a Rabbit Hole for every topic you can imagine on Twitter, and probably for a few you can’t. There’s also lots […]
A Firm Defense of “Squishy” Research
I recently dropped into a colleague’s class while her students were in the midst of a pretty deep dive of a research project and was impressed by some of the conversations I listened to about source reliability and peer-review. It made me second guess–for a moment–the project my kids are working on right now wherein […]
When They Get It (But Can’t Quite Say So…)
As an MTSS support coach, I’m constantly reminded that students at the losing end of the achievement gap are very rarely deficient in their ability to take an academic interest in a subject. But when a student’s reading and writing gaps are so far behind grade level that traditional assessments bar them from demonstrating their […]
Of Tweets and Teens
If you follow me on Twitter, you’ve probably noticed by now that I’m as likely to retweet something that entertains me as I am to retweet good educational practices when I see them (I’d argue both are important–one for reasons of my sanity and…actually I guess both of them for that.). Which means, for me, […]
I Get Wise with a Little Pop From My Friends
I want my students to be continually thinking about context–cultural, historical, and otherwise. For many of my students, the boundaries of their writing AND reading are constricted by their narrow contextual pools of knowledge. Helping them to see why the narratives of their history classes or the view through the microscope in biology are actually […]
Making Student Voice “Pop”
As English teachers, we often fancy ourselves not just teachers of reading and writing, but keepers of a sacred flame: Culture. For better and worse, we’ve hitched our wagon to both the humanities and the arts and made it our role to help make students both literate and “worldly”. It’s an interesting time to […]
What’s Saving My Life: EduTwitter
I think it’s safe to say that if you’re visiting us here at Moving Writers, you’re probably the sort of teacher who enters a new school year with a sense of adventure and possibility. I’m also going to guess that you already seek the positive in your students and offer all sorts of wonderful opportunities […]
Poppin’ and Writin’ All Summer Long
I’ve been learning a ton on Twitter recently, like the fact that many of you are already on summer vacation. And I am not. I eventually moved past that, though, and decided to write this post anyway. After all, we’re all colleagues and once I’m finally on summer break too in a couple weeks, I’m […]
Teaching From My Twitter Feed: Fun with Satire Personas
My students are at that time of year where they need to be constantly entertained. They like the satire unit we’re in the midst of (some of them have even said so out loud!), but their attention spans are starting to resemble that of my eight year old this afternoon as the rain poured down […]