and living life one day- and book- at a time
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 …
At the beginning of each school year, I stand in front of my students and I state, “Homework is a bad word. We don’t use it in my classroom. However, if you end up with homework in my class, know that it was a choice you made when you chose to do other things instead …
When it comes to adapting your instruction to fit student needs, do you do it before instruction, during instruction, or after instruction? Prior to this year, I always managed to foresee changes and adapt my lesson plans/instruction prior to teaching. This year? This year brings all new challenges. In a class with multiple reading abilities, …
The literacy specialist who visits our school and district shared with us an article title, “Every Child, Every Day,” that talks about the six things that every student should experience in the ELA classroom every day. She stated that we should strive to have students do those things in our classroom each day. I sat …
Welcome to another Monday! Let’s get this week started! Goal
This year has been a huge push to analyze student testing data. Every month we gather in a backroom behind the stage with other teachers of the same subject and look at test scores. We discuss why the students aren’t progressing, and we’re asked what we are going to do to change things. Can we …
I had a parent conference not too long ago, and I was asked about my teaching style. I’m adaptive. I know that at times I may have to revamp how I teach my material to my first period class as opposed to my third period honors. I know that even in my first period class, …
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, …
One of my main goals this school year has been to challenge my students to use transition words when writing. Often, it’s difficult for students to use transition words in their writing with a purpose. I realized when I started to teach text structure in informative writing that my students didn’t understand what transition words …
This school year started itself off with personal challenges. Over the past two years I’ve questioned by ability to teach and struggled with my health. After meeting with many parents and students, and looking over the data for one of my classes, I left work talking with God about what He expected and what I …