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Supporting Introverts in a First-Grade Classroom

Courtney Pawol looks at how being an introvert affects her role in learning communities, and then moves from insight to practical changes to help the introverts in her first-grade classroom.

Make a Note

Why is Leslie Woodhouse so forgetful? It’s all part of a not-so-devious plot to teach her preschool students the power of creating and leaving notes throughout the classroom.

Linking Movement, Minds, and Literacy in Kindergarten

Max Brand explains how movement activities in classrooms with young learners can be so much more than a brain break or “getting the wiggles out”: movement can forge potent connections between mind, body, and story. The essay includes two video examples.

Movement with First Graders

Katie DiCesare leads her first-grade students through movements and a song, and explains in the debrief why movement activities are valuable for young learners.

My Name Is Not Julie

Ellie Gilbert is deeply moved when her high school student connects to a text in a startling way. It’s one of those magic moments that keeps teachers coming back to classrooms, but is nearly impossible to share with others.

Lists, Facts, and Reports: Conferring with Anna

Franki Sibberson confers with fourth grader Anna to help her connect report writing with her love of animal lists.

Building Peer Conferring Skills in the Primary Grades

Ann Marie Corgill questions whether her second graders are ready for peer response. She finds that with some guidance and construction of anchor charts together, the answer is a resounding yes.

Classroom Jobs Build Community

Keri Archer describes her process of creating a jobs list for her kindergartners, as well as how she has adapted the tasks based on the evolving class community.

Lifting the Quality of Peer Response

Tony Keefer discovers that his fourth-grade students need focused instruction and support to strengthen their peer conferring skills. Tony shares tips and two video examples from his classroom.

Whole Class Writing Share: Teaching Response Skills in 1st Grade

Katie DiCesare’s first graders respond to their classmates’ writing, using questions they developed together over time.

Brainstorming Student Blogs

Franki Sibberson works with a group of students who want to create a collaborative blog of interviews. The discussion reveals some of the challenges of blog writing, including consistent posting and developing topics that might endure over time.

Book Talks in 4th Grade

Tony Keefer previews Infinity Ring with his fourth graders, and talks about the value of book talks for building a reading community.

Bully Literacy

Heather Rader shares texts for building understanding about bullies.

Fun in January: A Mock Caldecott Unit

Katherine Sokolowski discovers a seven-day Mock Caldecott unit is a fun way to build a reading community by predicting the winners, and Skyping with another class to share results.

 

Eliminating the Conga Line: Teaching Young Children About Strategic Thinking

Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan manage to synthesize workspace cleanup, student independence, and a concrete analogy for strategy work in classrooms.

Writers Inspiring Writers

Melissa Styger invites colleagues and family members into the classroom to share their writing process with students.

Teachers’ Night Out: Reclaiming Our Fearlessness

It’s hard to keep your teaching mojo high when standards are grinding you down. Gretchen Taylor is inspired by watching an aerial performer to consider harnesses and fearlessness in a new way.

Peer Conferring: The “Try It On” Phase

Amanda Adrian continues her series on how teachers can scaffold and model peer conferring. In this installment, Amanda uses the fishbowl technique with students.

Second-Grade Writing: Adding Details and Descriptive Language

In this first video from a four-part series, Sean Moore leads a writing workshop focused on adding more details and descriptive language to writing. He begins with the classic Charlotte’s Web as his mentor text.

Poetry All Year Long

Ann Williams shares how she builds a love of poetry in her fourth-grade classroom all year long.

Teacher Vulnerability

Julie Johnson writes about renewal and staying centered during tough teaching times.

Creating Anchor Charts with Multiple Classes

It’s a dilemma many middle school teachers face. How do you construct anchor charts with multiple groups of students, when only one chart will be hung in the room?  Katherine Sokolowski explains how she ensures all classes have input and a “clean slate” in constructing charts.

Reading as Reward

Principal Jennifer Schwanke finds herself on a mad dash to buy a baked potato for a struggling reader, and this is the moment that crystallizes for her everything that is wrong with most reading rewards (especially those involving food).

Ten Classic Ideas That Still Work

Teachers are always on the hunt for something new, even as we cherish what works well year after year. Franki Sibberson lists the activities that have stood the test of time in her classroom.

Good News: Your Teacher is Calling

Heather Rader and Jennifer Taft share strategies for positive communication with parents.

Opening Doors to Parents in Middle School

Gretchen Taylor finds middle school parents enjoy hearing about their child’s day — it’s just a matter of getting creative in dealing with the large number of families.

Book Memories

Jennifer Schwanke finds connections between her childhood, teaching, and school leadership in this heartwarming essay.

Trust

Mary Lee Hahn reminds herself (and us!) of the qualities we have that inspire trust in ourselves and our ability to teach well.

Do They Care? Empathy Book Clubs

Do they care? That’s the question Karen Terlecky asks herself as she sets up book clubs in her fifth-grade classroom with a focus on empathy.

The Power of Music

What can music add to the classroom? Plenty! Sean Moore and Heather Rader provide many examples and favorite tunes.

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