How to Write Your Own Mini Lessons

by Amanda | Feb 10, 2019 | Beginners, Mini Lessons, Podcast

Teachers are busy and don’t have time to go looking for mini lessons. If you do have time, here are The Best Places to Find Mini Lessons Online. However, if you you don’t have time, like most teachers on planet Earth, then you’ll want to come up with...

The Beginner’s Guide to Writing Workshop

by Amanda | Nov 18, 2018 | Beginners, Featured Post, Management, Podcast, Secondary Teachers

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...

Teach Students HOW to Use Mentor Texts

by Amanda | Sep 23, 2018 | Mentor Texts, Podcast

  Most writing workshop teachers know what a mentor text is (examples of writing in books, short stories, articles, poems etc.). But, what about how to use a mentor text? When I scoured the internet for the answer to this pressing question I found very little....

5 Simple Ways to Differentiate Writing Instruction in the Middle School Classroom

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...

10 Best YouTube Channels for Writing Teachers

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...