My best writing advice for teacher-writers (and my best advice for how to stay in the classroom for the long term) is to write about those problems, issues, and shortcomings that niggle you in the back of your head. Angela Stockman calls them the “pebbles in your teacher shoes.” Instead of a series of beautified […]
Whether you are returning to school virtually or face-to-face or something in between, we all need help envisioning how we will keep reading AND writing workshops thriving this year! We all need a sounding board, cheerleaders, and regular support. Let’s build a community! Community members will receive: A monthly newsletter filled with exclusive articles on adapting BOTH […]
Dear poetry-loving English teacher friends, Last week, we paused. We paused because the kids needed a pause, and we needed a pause. In every way, I think all of us are trying to find that happy medium right now between all and nothing. But here we are again — week 4, the final week of our poetry […]
Hello, friends, It’s another week of distance learning — and boy, are we all learning. To tell you the truth, I’m grateful for the distraction of the learning right now. Less time to surf the news. 🙂 This week, my students will be thinking about line and stanza breaks and how poets do this intentionally to […]
Publishing is a big part of writing workshop — whether students publish in Teen Ink or through a writing contest or simply by sitting in the “author’s chair” (something middle and high school students still love, surprisingly) and reading their favorite line. But often the school community, administrators, and parents miss these big moments. They just […]
Happy Holidays, friends! Alas, technology is getting me down today, so you’ll have to accept all my written words instead of a quick tip video this week. Thank you for being brave and carrying on. A few weeks ago, I shared one way of creating a triangle of communication between teacher, parent, and child […]
Sometimes I forget to make space for writers to communicate with me. In the hustle of the day-in-and-day-out, I slip into communicating AT kids instead of communicating WITH kids. One easy way I have found to change this is to make their writing goals super-visible — in the student’s face and in my face all […]
Screencast author’s notes are the perfect way to build a triangle of communication between parents, students, and the teacher! (And on the very, very most practical level, it gives me a class period at my desk to make sure everyone has submitted a best draft on time while students work!) Here are some resources to […]
In my last post, I discussed how a small change I made to the seating in my classroom affected my day-to-day approach to teaching writing. Simply moving students into small groups allowed me to see so many valuable opportunities for collaboration in my instruction. Today, I’m going to talk about the collaborative benefits another small […]
Overview Docs help you communicate with every student in your room, but especially those who need support with copies of notes and those who are chronically absent! They also provide streamlined one-stop communication with administrators, parents, and colleagues. Here you can take a peek at a completed overview document from this school year! And […]
