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Back-to-school is a busy time for teachers. You’ve decorated your classroom, planned exciting lessons, and put routines and systems into place. Many of you have already welcomed your students to a new year. Wouldn’t it be great if you had a personal assistant freeing you up to do nothing but teach? While you’re waiting for …
I think we can all agree that poetry can be intimidating for students AND teachers! But I think that might be because we keep it hidden away. Students don’t see or read or study poetry often so it just isn’t familiar and therefore can’t be comfortable. So the question is how do we add poetry into …
Back to school season is upon us. With that comes juggling new routines, figuring out where everyone is and most importantly getting to know the students in front of us. To me, getting to know my students is the most important part of going back to school. I prioritize it over everything else. I strongly …
Do your students utilize your classroom library or has it become an expensive decoration in the back of the room? We here at ELA Matters understand the importance of having a classroom library, not just pretty books on shelves, but a library where students find books they want to read, they can relate to, they …
Raise your hand if you are tired of hearing a mumbled “here” while taking attendance. Instead, maybe you are tired of hearing nothing but crickets. Perhaps you are in the group that constantly forgets to take attendance and are frantically filling it in at the end of the day. Over the past decade of teaching, …
One of the biggest challenges as a secondary teacher is how quickly you need to get to know your students. You have a lot to do, but know the value of taking the time to get to know your students – not just who they are personally but who they are as readers and writers.
Have you incorporated growth mindset activities in your classroom? Research has shown that teaching students to have a growth mindset contributes to their beliefs about intelligence and correlates to higher academic performance. What is Growth Mindset? In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are fixed traits. They believe …
When you think about your favourite teachers you had growing up, who comes to mind? Chances are, it wasn’t the one who knew the curriculum backwards and forwards or had perfect lesson plans, it was likely the one who made you feel important, who took an interest in your life, and encouraged you to dream …
At the beginning of the year, do you get so excited about sharing books you love that you forget to take the time needed to get to know your students as readers? I know when I first started teaching, I made assumptions about what my students knew about books and what I thought they should …
Getting ready to return for the new school year? Or maybe you’ve already settled into a few days or weeks? Whatever the case may be some of our ELA MATTERS contributors have some tried-and-true advice to share to help you. Take a read through for some simple helpful advice whether you are a new or …
