Welcome to the Podcast
The Empower Students Now Podcast
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...
10 Ways to Bring Mindfulness into Your Life and Digital Classroom
Do you often feel overwhelmed with all you have to do? Maybe you feel scattered and aren’t sure what to focus your energy on. Mindfulness in your personal and professional life can most definitely help alleviate these anxieties. In this blog post I’ll share ten ways...
5 Mini Lessons to Teach Writing Explicitly to Support Struggling Writers
Have you ever felt you weren’t supporting a group of students with writing? Maybe these students had IEPs, maybe they didn’t, maybe they were the students who turned in writing that was all over the place, spelling mistakes, run-on sentences, no paragraphs...you know...
15 Ways to Engage Students in Meaningful Discussions in Person and Online
There are so many discussion tech tools available to teachers these days! Parlay, Jamboard, Back Channel, Voxer and even Google Slides and Docs can be used to facilitate discussions among students virtually. But, what always gets me thinking is...these tools are...
How to Actually Accomplish Your Goals for Teachers and Students
I’m a goal setting master. However, like many other humans out there (maybe you?), I lose motivation quickly and eventually my goals disappear into the ether only to be heard of again when it’s time to make a change and set a new goal...and the cycle continues. A few...
Mentor Texts for Writing and Discussions About Race
Our classrooms are microcosms of the society we live in. The sad reality (that many have a hard time admitting) is race matters in our society and it matters in our classrooms. The majority of teachers in America are white and female. Schools and neighborhoods are...
How to Quit Grading So Much…
Amanda Write Now · How To Quit Grading So Much And Make It More Meaningful So, you want to know how to quit grading so much? Or maybe you just want your grading process to be more systematic and meaningful for students. Well, reading this blog post is the first step...
How to Teach Reading and Writing Workshop from a Distance
Amanda Write Now · How To Teach Reading And Writing Workshop From A Distance Many teachers are wondering, can I still teach reading and writing workshop from a distance? The quick answer is... absolutely! Whether you want to admit it or not, the current state...
Distance Learning Community Building Activities for Middle and High School
Amanda Write Now · 15 Community Building Distance Learning Activities Middle Schoolers Will LOVE! Students in our class need to feel that their unique voices, opinions, and experiences matter. In this article, you'll get inspiration and ideas for distance learning...
My Best Tips for Managing a Book Club Unit
Managing a book club unit is tough! Some teachers may feel so overwhelmed by all the moving pieces that they avoid book clubs altogether. This is completely understandable. During a book club unit, students are reading different books, analyzing a wide range of...
Want to Get Started With Workshop? Do This One Simple Yet Powerful Thing!
Does this sound like you? You learn a new idea, a new way of teaching, a new strategy and you're all in. You become so convinced THIS is the way to go about things from now on! But, this energy to change everything all at once eventually wears off and you're left with...
How I Cut My Grading Time by Ten Hours
I teach 4 sections of English with a total of 128 students. Grading that many papers every few months is a huge endeavor and can overtake a person's life! In my 13 years as a teacher, I've never been able to kick that nagging feeling that there's always more to...