by Amanda | Jul 18, 2018 | Mini Lessons, Podcast, Reading
English teachers struggle to fit it all in. We want to teach the novels we love while also allowing the freedom and choice that reading workshop provides. Can we do both? Yes! Keep reading to find out how…First a bit of background about my interpretation of what...
by Amanda | Apr 28, 2018 | End of the Year, Make Writing Fun, Podcast
The end of the school year can be chaotic, so keeping students engaged and having fun is incredibly important. I have used the project detailed here every year I’ve taught and it never fails to keep students loving their school work and writing until the very...
by Amanda | Feb 4, 2018 | Holiday Writing, Make Writing Fun, Reading
Teaching students how to identify themes in literature can be challenging! It takes a lot of abstract thought which students may not even be capable of yet. Why not use the Valentine’s Day holiday to your advantage? Often, themes in literature involve...
by Amanda | Jan 15, 2018 | Conferencing, Differentiation, Podcast
Teaching writing is tough and differentiating writing instruction is tougher! Student writers have so many varying needs. What do you do when Steven can crank out a well organized, thoughtful literary essay in twenty minutes and John can barely write a paragraph? What...
by Amanda | Dec 1, 2017 | Holiday Writing, Podcast
November, December, April, May and June are months full of fun and anticipation for the upcoming break! It can be incredibly challenging to keep things running smoothly and continue the teaching and learning during this time. Here you’ll find ten ways you can...
by Amanda | Oct 7, 2017 | Mini Lessons, Podcast, Reading, Routines, Writing Units
Writing and reading workshop are powerful methods to teach English. But, how can secondary teachers, who have less than an hour with their students, do it all?!?! I think I have found the solution! Here are the two different schedule options depending on if you are in...
by Amanda | Sep 21, 2017 | Featured Post, Podcast, Technology
In the last three years Google Classroom has definitely transformed my teaching practices. It is such a simple system to use. At first I used it in obvious ways, create a Google Doc, type directions in that Doc and post it as a class assignment. But as time went on I...
by Amanda | Sep 5, 2017 | Back to School, Management, Mini Lessons, Podcast, Writing Units
6.2kSHAREShare Tweet Pin It This blog post outlines exactly what I did to launch both reading and writing workshop in my classroom. If you are an English teacher wanting to teach using the writing and reading workshop model,...
by Amanda | Aug 6, 2017 | Assessment, Featured Post, Publishing, Technology, Writing Units
Publishing student writing is the cornerstone of a successful writing workshop program. At the beginning of each of my writing units I tell students they will write many different drafts within a writing genre and pick one to revise intensely and then to publish. In...
by Amanda | Jul 30, 2017 | Back to School, Featured Post, Technology, Videos
PowToon is a fun and fairly easy video creation tool for teachers and students. The company already has an excellent blog post about how teachers can utilize this tool in their classrooms here. This blog post is about how students can use PowToon for ten writing and...
by Amanda | Jul 17, 2017 | Back to School, Management, Podcast, Routines
Every teacher on the planet knows that the first weeks of school are all about routines, routines, routines and more routines. But, over time so many routines in our classrooms go overlooked. This guide discusses five important components of the workshop schedule...
by Amanda | Jun 9, 2017 | Podcast, Technology
Ever spend hours looking for YouTube videos to teach writing? Youtube channels for writing teachers are hard to find! YouTube is an incredible resource bank for writing teachers…but sometimes it can be annoying to sift through all the junk to get to the good...
by Amanda | Apr 20, 2017 | Assessment
I’m going to be honest here. In my opinion, writing assessment is the worst part of a writing teacher’s job. As objective as we try to be while assessing with rubrics and checklists, grading writing is subject to our attitudes, relationships and even our...
by Amanda | Mar 22, 2017 | Podcast, Research
Researching online is easier than ever. But, thoughtlessness is easier than ever too! Classrooms are transforming. They are spending more and more time learning online. This is why it is vital we read articles like this with our students. We need to think about,...
by Amanda | Feb 2, 2017 | Argumentative Writing, Make Writing Fun, Mini Lessons, Podcast, Support for Struggling Writers, Videos
Students are glued to their media…YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat are the top apps used by secondary kids. As educators our job is to engage our students in the process of learning and what better way is there to engage than through video?!?! In this...