by Amanda | Aug 2, 2018 | Back to School, Podcast, Secondary Teachers
772SHAREShare Tweet Pin It Don’t have time to read this article? Listen on iTunes instead! We all have our own curriculum, our own teaching teams, our own way of doing things but it’s summer vacation and time to ponder other options! This...
by Amanda | Jul 30, 2018 | Back to School, Featured Post, Management, Podcast, Writing Independence
376SHAREShare Tweet Pin It Don’t have time to read all of this?!?! Listen below:) So, some of your students aren’t writing during writing? Maybe they are just sitting there staring off into space. Or maybe they are sneaking onto their phone,...
by Amanda | Jul 18, 2018 | Mini Lessons, Podcast, Reading
8.3kSHAREShare Tweet Pin It 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...
by Amanda | Apr 28, 2018 | End of the Year, Make Writing Fun, Podcast
737SHAREShare Tweet Pin It 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...
by Amanda | Jan 15, 2018 | Conferencing, Differentiation, Podcast
467SHAREShare Tweet Pin It 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...
by Amanda | Dec 1, 2017 | Holiday Writing, Podcast
505SHAREShare Tweet Pin It 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....
by Amanda | Oct 7, 2017 | Mini Lessons, Podcast, Reading, Routines, Writing Units
6.8kSHAREShare Tweet Pin It 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...
by Amanda | Sep 21, 2017 | Featured Post, Podcast, Technology
5.2kSHAREShare Tweet Pin It 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...
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 | Jul 17, 2017 | Back to School, Management, Podcast, Routines
1.7kSHAREShare Tweet Pin It 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...
by Amanda | Jun 9, 2017 | Podcast, Technology
1.4kSHAREShare Tweet Pin It 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...
by Amanda | Mar 22, 2017 | Podcast, Research
266SHAREShare Tweet Pin It 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...
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...
by Amanda | Nov 4, 2016 | Podcast, Writing Units
Share Tweet Pin It Most secondary teachers I know, wonderful teachers who are friends of mine by the way, teach information/expository writing using essay assignments. Here’s how it usually goes: Read & annotate articles Write an essay in...
by Amanda | Jun 28, 2016 | Beginners, Podcast
Share Tweet Pin It Don’t have time to read? Listen to this article instead! I’ve been teaching writing workshop for four years now with no formal training. Last week I attended the Summer Writing Institute in NYC organized and facilitated by...