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Opportunities Offered in Book Shopping
There are so many routines that are necessary to make reading workshop run smoothly. We teach students how to gather on the carpet for the minilesson, how to physically turn...
Holidays: Where Do They Fit in the Classroom?
“I’ve never had someone acknowledge and recognize the Moon Festival," a parent said to me at parent pickup during one of the first weeks of school. "I didn’t know that...
Making Queer Inclusivity Less Complicated
A couple of summers ago, I had a lovely surprise. One of my former high school students, Brendan, reached out to me through social media to tell me that he...
The Tale of Two Boys
Ryan, a little red-haired boy with a shocking resemblance to Dennis the Menace, bounced around the classroom. He skipped to the cubbies and grabbed a handful of markers, then dropped...
Remaining Connected as a Coach
It happens every time I walk into a primary classroom in January until the end of the year. No matter what my purpose for being there is—co-teaching, observing, micro-modeling or...
Coaching Toward Independence: Using an Instructional Framework to Guide a Principal-Teacher Conversation
One mistake leaders can make when coaching teachers is to give advice. For instance, we see an opportunity to make a suggestion during an observation. Yet this “opportunity” also takes...
The Best Advice for Keeping Students at the Heart of Lesson Plans
Bitsy Parks shares her best advice for lesson planning in a way that keeps the focus on students. She encourages finding joy in the planning process by observing them.
How to Respond When Books and Curriculum Resources Are Challenged
In the past few months, many literacy leaders have been facing challenges from parents or community members related to classroom library books, school library books, and supplemental materials that support...
Changing Positions? How to Rethink Your Community (Download)
“How are you?” I asked the teacher as I walked into the hallway where she was looking at art on the wall. “I don’t know,” she said. “I’m switching to...
Reshaping Personal Narratives with Awareness, Reflection, and Support
People do not reconsider what they mindlessly accepted as true. — Ellen Langer At the age of 45, I was given a diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It was a...
Reading Specialists Can Change the Narrative
When I started working with Trevor in reading support during his first year, he was significantly behind his peers. Though most of his classmates were on the path to learning...
Setting Up the Intervention Room
It was the end of the school year, and we had just received an email from our principal containing next year’s school map. Changes in teaching positions and class sizes...
What Matters More
We have a Little Free Library in our front yard that I received as a gift from my husband many years ago. We love it and our neighbors love it....
Using Daily Attendance Questions to Build Community and Communication Skills
A typical beginning to one of my high school class periods might go as follows: "Do you prefer pancakes, waffles, or french toast? I’m definitely a pancake person; the fluffier...
What I Am Reading the First Week of School
Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection we can see our own lives and experiences as part of the larger human experience. —Dr....
Poems to Start the Year
Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words. —Robert Frost Last year I had a student who had such anxiety about being called...
Honoring Student Identity (Download a Survey)
At our first faculty meeting this year, our principal shared that two of our middle school families had contacted the school to say that their children identify as nonbinary. Both...
Creating a Classroom Emotional Intelligence Charter
Happy. Sad. Frustrated. Overwhelmed. Joyful. Our classrooms are filled with many emotions, and at any moment a different emotion can surface and affect our learning and community. Over the years...
Five Books to Launch Discussion About the Coaching Role
The role of an instructional coach is complex, varied, and responsive to the teachers and students within a single building. Each position can look drastically different from the next, and...
Ridiculously Amazing Schools
How does your school improvement team focus their work for the coming school year? In the past few years the school improvement team at my school has used a book...
Befriending Characters in Times of Grief (Booklist)
You don’t want to lose the things or people that leave imprints on your heart. —Elly Swartz, middle-grade author On the first day of school, 16 fourth graders spread out...
