Over the last year or so, I’ve been thinking about how I can do more to help teachers. A one-day workshop or webinar is great, but I’m also convinced that the most important conversations we have are individual, one-on-one, and speak into the specifics of our lives. So, I started offering private coaching sessions just […]
On a recent sunny October morning, I laced up my sneakers and set out on a run through golden tree-lined paths in a park close to my house. The run was at a mild pace, the air fresh, and I was daydreaming while running. I ended the run red-cheeked but not overly winded or strained. […]
I tried Rebekah O’Dell’s Flash Revision and loved the results. Later in the unit, one of my students asked, “Why don’t you help me with a timer while proofreading too? It’s harder than revision.”
I asked teachers in the Moving Writers Community to share their wish lists with me — the kind of professional development that they are dreaming of. And then I used those ideas to create a calendar of PD opportunities this school year. Others will probably pop up — in fact, I know for certain we’ll […]
Oct 8 2024 Ashley Anderson Source Shock-tober is just as much a thing for teachers as it is for students. I don’t know where y’alls students are, but mine are struggling. Struggling not only to make it to school on time but also to even write a sentence…correctly. Because the “struggle is real”, I knew […]
Use nature as your guide for writing. Come join Abigail in her beat this month which offers ways to get involved in the beloved Write Out event going on– and ideas to spark your students writing all year long.
If you are a teacher of writing, you have likely sometimes felt so immersed in a book that you could see the characters walking down the street along by moonlight or hear the sounds of a bustling marketplace. The author’s use of setting details is part of what makes this happen. Setting is more than […]
Forensic Science is one of the most popular electives at our school, which makes sense given how often students tell me that either Law & Order, SVU, Criminal Minds, or Cold Case is their favorite tv show. Students are engaged by clues, puzzles, and intrigue. While ELA teachers lean into this engagement strategy when we […]
This is why I love the leap into non-literal sense making that is Nancy WIlliard’s poem “Questions My Son Asked Me, Answers I Never Gave Him.” Each of the questions are lovely and from a child’s mind of wonder. But, the answers exceed that sense of childhood awe into a kind of riddle-world where wisdom […]
One of my greatest frustrations in teaching is waiting for – what feels like hours – as my students wade through their bags and files to find the draft or handout they’re looking for. The ticking of the clock slowly comes into my awareness and with every second, it gets louder and louder as I gather my wits together and desperately try to hold onto them while every part of me wants to scream.
moving writers 