and living life one day- and book- at a time
When it comes to creating a learning output in the ELA classroom, we can utilize either project based or problem based learning. While these two inquiry products can coincide with other subjects, finding a way to make them solely ELA can be just as rewarding in the classroom. Nine years ago, the word rigorous was …
This week I started teaching my anti-bullying unit. It’s one that I developed after going to a professional development, and because it is mine- and a topic that is close to my heart- I love teaching this unit. I wanted to find a way to incorporate our informational text in with a novel study, and …
The professional development that I have sat through lately has been on writing curriculum. While writing curriculum is great, it doesn’t meet the needs that I currently have: the Covid bubble of students. When Covid struck and schools were shut down in 2020, we had entire groups of students who suddenly were moved along with …
Sometimes I look back on my past successes and feel less than before. Am I still not the same successful teacher I was back then? I suppose that I could blame this new climate of student learning on the missed learning moments during Covid, but surely after this long we should be reaching the end, …
In my usual scrolling on my phone through different news and articles, I came across an article written by Megan Quinn of Your Tango titled “10 Boys vs 10 Girls Were Left Unsupervised In A House For 5 Days and The Results Were Wildly Different.” Of course, being the middle school teacher that I am, …
Sometimes you have that group of students that no teacher seems to want. They complain about the students. They criticize their abilities and write them off as being unteachable. These are the ones that I seem to be drawn toward in teaching career as I was the mother of one of these students. When I …
Finding a way to make learning fun and engaging can be difficult the older students become. Add to that the issue with technology, and teaching becomes more challenging. One of the problems that we have in middle school is that students who have never had a personal laptop are suddenly presented with one, and with …
Finding books for boys that they find interesting and that will engage them in reading can be difficult. So many times, especially in middle school, boys tend to move away from books. Last year, I challenged my students to read. They kept a reading log, and we started off with 15 minutes each class period …
I can remember sitting in on a Professional Development session back in 2014 on “Gamifying Your Classroom,” and I walked out of there thinking, “That’ll never work!” The ugly truth is that I tuned out during the session on Classcraft because I thought that it was complicated. I was wrong! I ran across Classcraft by …
Engagement. It is the one thing that all teachers long for in the classroom. Engagement means that your students are actively involved in what is happening in class. It means that the lesson is relevant and effective. For the last two days, I have stressed about today’s activity. We were putting a character on trial, …