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Alignment and Community: Planning a Year of Professional Development Opportunities
The role of the leader is to enable, facilitate, and cause peers to interact in a focused manner. Peer interaction is the social glue of focus and cohesion. Michael Fullan...
Picture It: A Soothing Workspace
This year I want to be more mindful about my workspace -- to use the space to help my work instead of hinder it. In my job as a principal,...
Using Pinterest for Professional Development
A few weeks ago, I noticed this tweet from Chris Lehman, “I'm tiptoeing back into Pinterest. Just opened an account. Still feel so overwhelmed though. Tips?” I knew exactly how...
Helping Students Evaluate Online Video for Research
At some point during the 2005-2006 school year, my students introduced me to an online video sharing site where anyone could upload and share a video with the world. At...
Using Technology to Connect Young Readers and Writers
We are stronger together than we are apart. Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach I’ve always been one of those people who likes to talk about books with others. I’ve always read voraciously,...
The Minimalist: Essential Texts for Kindergarten Teaching
I am a minimalist. I fancy myself a careful consumer looking for utility in each item. I have learned to survive using a few select items. These select items fit...
Global Read Aloud with Pernille Ripp (PODCAST)
Franki Sibberson chats with Pernille Ripp about Global Read Aloud, a worldwide initiative bringing children of all ages together around shared read alouds. You can visit Pernille's blog at http://www.pernilleripp.com...
Reading to Students
Three times a year, I offer to be a guest reader in each of the 25 classrooms in our K-5 elementary school where I am the principal. I am quite...
Speaking to Adults Through Books
When I had a child who worried about being different from her playmates, I curled up and read The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf. Maya summed up the story...
Laundry Line Luxuries
One bulb at a time. There was no other way to do it. No shortcuts—simply loving the slow process of planting. Loving the work as it unfolded. Loving an achievement...
Reimagining Reading Notebooks
Several years ago I stumbled across some premade reading notebooks. They already had spots for my students to record what they were reading, how many books they had read in...
In Defense of Dictation
Our preschool classroom is not quiet at journal time. To the untrained observer, it may even look a little chaotic. For the children, this is a predictable and expected part...
What Data Will You Be Collecting?
Like many of you I love the beginning of the school year. By the end of July I twitch, pace, and lose sleep. I want to dive back into school...
Rethinking the Assessment Binder
In early December, I asked my 26-year-old daughter to come into school and help me file papers into student folders. After a few hours at the back table, she looked...
Improvement Plan
Maria taught sixth-grade language arts in the middle school where I was an assistant principal. When I first came to the building, my principal warned me about Maria. “She’s struggling,”...
“My Ideal Bookshelf”: Books that Educate Us
I’ve been feeling restless lately about my reading assessment in my classroom—particularly in the realm of reader reflection—and I wanted to try something new. In recent years I’ve asked my...
Routines to Build Independence Early in the School Year
During the first month of college my freshman year, my mom sent me this poem by Erma Bombeck. I can remember finding it inside of a letter she had written...
Daily Routines: Finding Time for What Matters
When groups of children enter the classroom each morning, year after year, my ultimate goal is to make sure their days are filled with happiness, laughter, and lots of learning...
First Read Alouds (ROUND-UP)
There's something truly special about gathering new students together, no matter their age, for the first read aloud of the school year. No wonder teachers put so much time and...
New Teachers: The Power of Inexperience
Recently, some teachers in my school were discussing books our elementary students have loved over the years. Someone brought up Harry Potter. “Oh I remember that,” said a first-year teacher....
Planning a Read Aloud Sequence to Launch the School Year
I truly believe the first few weeks of school can make or break the community of learners you hope to develop. Teachers feel so much pressure to jump right in...
