Mentor Text: Every Song on ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’ Ranked by Veracia Ankrah Techniques: Background – I have a couple of pursuits that I feel like I’m constantly developing, filing texts for future use, and stockpiling ideas. The music writing pursuit is one nearest and dearest to my heart. It’s pretty rare that students don’t […]
Mentor Text: The Sea Glass Collector by Lawrence Maxwell Techniques: Background – As we move further into the post-pandemic reality of education, a lot of things are going back to normal. For some of us, that means we’re returning to government mandated assessments. (Ugh. That sounds awful – I was trying to find a way to […]
You guys. I am so excited about this. More excited than I’ve been about a project in a long time. I’m currently teaching It’s Trevor Noah: Born a Crime for the first time. And, to save time and energy and maximize learning, I’m using it as the foundation of my personal essay unit. Which made […]
Mentor Text: Chasing Ricky Lake by Richard Wagamese Techniques: Background – I’m a month into my 24th year of teaching full time. I’m not sure why I feel I’m managing it the worst. It may be the demands of parenting, coupled with my goals and the needs of my students, but I feel like I’m leaning […]
Mentor Text: The Ancestors by Jasmin Kaur Techniques: Background – We’re all into a new school year. Sometimes, in that chaos, we fall back on some tried and true lessons and texts. As we gather with new students, I know that many of us like to start with some variation on the “Where I’m From” lesson. […]
Mentor Text: excerpt from ‘The Red House‘ by Robert R. McCammon Techniques: Background – Over the last few years, I’ve really thrown myself back into the horror genre. It began with The Kingcast podcast becoming a fave, and drawing me back into Constant Readership, but rediscovering horror movies and beginning to explore middle years spooky stuff […]
Mentor Text: Potato by Rebekah Rempel Techniques: Background – The last two months of school are challenging, eh? If I’m not in teacher mode planning the end of my courses, laying the groundwork for next year or marking, I’m in parent mode, shuttling everyone everywhere. As I’ve shared before, I always grab my satchel on the […]
Mentor Text: Leading Us To Revelation: On Rita Dove by Jericho Brown Techniques: Background – I’ve had a subscription to POETRY Magazine for a few years now. And I almost never finish an issue. Issues travel with me in my school bag. Issues are lugged to dance and swim practices in my satchel. Issues can usually […]
Mentor Text: Elegies for Lost Voices – four poems by Scott Nolan. Techniques: Background – Maybe this is because I spent time last night listening to Gordon Lightfoot in the wake of his passing. Maybe it’s because I need to prep a lesson plan for next week in my Lit class where we’re writing about music […]
Mentor Text: excerpt from Stay True by Hua Hsu Techniques: Background – The week in which I’m writing this is one of those weeks we have as teachers, where we’re overwhelmed with obligations and expectations. A couple of weeks ago, when I felt like I had a bit more breathing room, I was reading Hua […]
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