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We have all entered a professional development session thinking about the never-ending to-do list we have as teachers. Add the additional steps for English teachers to grade the piles of paragraphs, essays, and presentations. I end up feeling disgruntled sitting in a meeting that feels like it could have been an email or filled with …
As we learned (and educators already knew) from the pandemic, schools play a critical role in a student’s life. They are a place of learning, socializing, and even celebrating. Celebrating the holiday season in schools has so many advantages – it allows students to connect with one another, explore different cultural traditions, and build an inclusive environment.
Over the years, my students have had some of the most imaginative and original creative writing ideas, but they often have difficulty finding the right words to express these ideas in a way that allows the reader to fully immerse themselves in their literary worlds. Incorporating activities for students to practice infusing imagery into their …
If you’re looking for an engaging way to get your students writing daily while supporting your students’ Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), give daily gratitude writing a try. What is Gratitude Writing? Gratitude writing is simply the practice of spending time each day physically writing down the things we’re grateful for. Some people use bullet lists, others …
Do your students struggle with compare and contrast activities? Maybe they rely on the obvious at the expense of analysis? Are thesis writing, constructing outlines, and plagiarism a problem? If you answered yes to any or all of the questions, you’re not alone! My students struggled big time with comparative essay writing, so I had …
Over the years, Sami has tried to use a variety of classroom routines to help students know what is coming: taped areas on the whiteboard, paper signs at the door, verbal reminders, folders with classwork, and more to help students be more organized throughout the year. For the past few years, she has consistently been …
Icebreakers and community building activities can be fun… so fun, in fact, that it can be easy to get carried away. If you’re like me, there’s been more than a few years you’ve made it to week 3 only to realize your way behind on your pacing guide. One of my favorite ways to build …
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 …
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, …
