How to Talk to Students about Chat GPT and Increase Academic Honesty Too
Share Tweet Pin It The best way to handle new technology being introduced to the education world is to investigate the tools for ourselves, with an open mind, rather than getting caught up in fear and overwhelm. I know this is hard to do, believe me,...
Rethinking Elementary and Secondary Reading Instruction and Assessment with Equity in Mind
Share Tweet Pin It I wrote this six part equity series to better understand the inequities surrounding the ways in which we teach and assess reading and writing skills in the United States. I wanted to know more. Not only that, I wanted to find...
The Story of a Teacher Author’s Identity Crisis
I’ve learned and changed tremendously since the events of 2020-2021, you might even call what’s happened an identity crisis…I want to share this story here to make sense of everything for myself but also because I know there are many teachers out there...
6 Methods to Support Struggling Writers
751SharesShare Tweet Pin It Writing is such a critical subject to master. Students who have confidence and skills as writers have the potential to go far in education and life. But, writing is one of the toughest subjects to teach and one of the...
When you find out you’ve been teaching wrong…
What are best teaching practices? Have you ever questioned your beliefs? When you begin questioning your beliefs, it is referred to as a paradigm shift.Stephen Covey, the author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People describes in detail what a paradigm shift is. In...
13 Ways to Motivate Resistant Writers
Share Tweet Pin It We all have resistant writers in our classrooms. This is a fact of teaching life. In the video below learn 13 different ways that you can help resistant writers become much more motivated. Not all of these ways will work. You need to...
The Truth About Programs: 4 Programs That Changed Me That I Eventually Quit
Quitting programs. I’ve followed and quit so many programs in my life! Diets, work out routines, parenting guides, teaching curriculum. Programs are everywhere we turn. Dictionary.com defines “program” as: a plan of action to accomplish a specified...
5 Super Fun, Simple Games to Play with Your Class…Whenever!
1.6kSharesShare Tweet Pin It Sometimes we just need to have fun with our students and what better way than with simple classroom games? Having fun is important for many reasons some of which include: it builds community, it’s a stress reliever, it...
I’m More than an English Teacher
Don’t have time to read? I received an email recently (I love receiving emails from teachers who read my blog!) asking me a really interesting question… Do you do workshop all year? I immediately yelled (in my mind) NO! In this moment, it occurred to me...
The Beginner’s Guide to Writing Workshop
Many secondary teachers, like you, are beginning to realize the power of running their English classes using writing workshop. Maybe you keep seeing references to it on Pinterest or in Facebook groups. Maybe a teacher friend is trying it and finding success. Or maybe...