At this point in time, I’d be surprised if a teacher told me they haven’t gotten “the call” yet. And by “the call,” I mean when an administrator reaches out to teachers to inform them what the school and/or state would be doing in response to COVID19. I live in Illinois, so “the call” came […]
Category: Notebook Time
Making the Magic Visible
It’s been a minute since I last wrote a post. With the ‘before winter break shenanigans’ in full effect the past couple of weeks, I just now feel like I can take a breath…in order to make a never ending list of things to catch up on—HA! Today’s post is about how I am helping […]
Troy and Abed: Reading, (Not) Writing, and…Leaving?
This year at Moving Writers, I’ll be dedicating some of my posts to exploring the ways I try to help two of my students, who I’ve nicknamed Troy and Abed. I’ve chosen them as a focus for the year partially because I already know them from their freshman and sophomore years, having worked closely […]
Hardwired for Connection
It’s the start of a new school year and this is my fourth year at the American Community School of Abu Dhabi. And yes, it is ridiculously hot right now…I get a facial every time I walk outside. For the 2019-20 year I am teaching 2 Language and Literature Year 2’s (new prep), 1 AP […]
Hot Dogs and Apathy–A Case Study
The beginning of a new year–a year where I’ll focus my MW attention on two particular students in need of some writing inspiration.
100 Days of Summer Writing: FAQ
The 2nd annual 100 Days of Summer Writing is underway! Welcome, new friends! So good to see you, friends from last summer! We are hopeful that this will be a restorative and transformative experience for you both as a person and as a writing teacher! We are also grateful to those of you who registered […]
A #nanowrimo Goal: Teacher Writer Self Care
So here we are. It’s the end of November, which means that #nanowrimo is coming to a close, and I didn’t write my novel. Again. But this year, I’m totally okay with that. You see, in the past, I’ve taken a few different approaches to #nanowrimo: Are you crazy? Write a novel in a […]
Mentor Text Wednesday: Five Truths and a Lie about Paxton Avenue
Mentor Text: Five Truths and a Lie about Paxton Avenue by Jose Olivarez (pdf) Techniques: Writing Memoir Using a Structure Background – In the first paragraph of this column, I usually reference my Twitter feed. I follow a lot of poets, not only because they share their work, but the poetry community is wonderful at sharing […]
What’s Saving My Life: Notebook Time Slidedecks
We’d all be perfect teachers if we had our students all day, every day, and English was their only class. Then we would have time to do all the things. We could use every single smart idea we found on Twitter. We could perfectly balance reading and writing and vocabulary study. We could study every […]
The 100 Days of Summer Writing!!!
It’s here! It’s here! #100DSW18 Slide Deck Welcome to the inaugural 100 Days of Summer Writing! This is a movement for students and teachers alike to use the summer break to build writing muscles and bits of genius through the regular inspiration provided by Notebook Time. THANK YOU to everyone who contributed! And THANK YOU […]