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All the Writing Things: Putting Writers in Charge of Their Writing
It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about? – Henry David Thoreau After 22 years as a high school physics teacher, my...
Five Things I’ve Used AI for This Week
My mom slid into the passenger seat of my car and shut her door. “Thanks for driving me to the eye doctor, honey,” she said as she handed me a...
Sometimes You Have to Grow a New Skin
The school year always seems to start off with a bang! However, it isn’t long before the days are flowing smoothly, one after another, settling into a rhythm that feels...
How to Build Your System for Knowing, Thinking, and Writing
Your notes deserve better than to be forgotten. When I started my new position as a systems coach for an educational service agency, my first project was to develop a...
Not Your Granny’s Grammar: Create Intentional Transfer to Writing
Ah, the great grammar gap! That puzzling paradox where students who have been studying grammar with depth seemingly forget many of the grammar tools they acquired. This isn't a reflection...
Art as a Restorative Teaching Practice
Art has always been a way for me to express myself. I’m not the best artist, but I enjoy doodling, drawing, and making things with my hands. As a young...
Not Your Granny’s Grammar: Grammar Manipulatives
Grammar worksheets. They have arguably been the most popular tool for grammar instruction for decades. I’d like to offer an alternative that gives students a more interactive, creative, and effective...
And the Winner Is… Planning and Implementing a Mock Book Award
A screenful of children waited eagerly. An educator walked to the front of the room and announced the title of the book that had won their student-selected book award. The...
Teachers as Leaders: Five Ways to Create the Conditions for Change (Part 2)
In Part 1, we introduced the five Vs and shared a process of using models to navigate the unpredictable terrain of school-wide change. The five Vs offer a pathway that...
Not Your Granny’s Grammar: So Long, Grammar of Yore
Generally speaking, grammar instruction has not evolved much since our grandmas and grandpas were in school (and their grandmas and grandpas as well). I recently did a deep dive comparing...
Letting Go and Trusting Students
Coming back from break wasn’t really the time I would have chosen for a door-decorating contest, and almost in a last-ditch effort to come up with an easy idea, I...
Say Cheese: Sharing Photos to Increase Family and Student Engagement
I am that mom who literally walks around with a storage-full phone. There is no such thing as too many pictures. When my kids were in day care (and even...
What Just Happened? Download a Behavior Sheet
“Mason, come join us on the rug, please,” I say, calmly reminding him for the third time of the expectation. I turn to the other kids and pick up the...
Teachers as Leaders: Five Ways to Create the Conditions for Change (Part 1)
As I waited in an office lobby on a Friday afternoon to meet with a principal as an external coach, I remembered how demanding the work of positional leaders can...
Don’t Be in Such a Hurry to Put Out the Fire (and Completely Miss the Flame)
I settled into a coaching conversation, ready to roll up my sleeves and find the next solution. The teacher began to share what was on her mind when the first...
Listening In Raises Student Voices
Listening In, Empowering, and Guiding Student Ideas The day started with our Master Gardener friends visiting and helping us learn about Ohio native plants, monarchs in winter, and winter seed...
Community Circle
Stay Steady: Classroom Community/Community Circle Jenny quickly spoke out. “What will we do at lunch, because there are only eight spots at each table and we eight fill those spots?”...
The Influence of the Classroom Library
The purple crayon moved across the screen and a new world emerged. As my kids and I watched Harold and the Purple Crayon in the movie theater, I wore a...
Rhyme and Reflect: Fostering Fluency Through Poetry
Introduction As children learn to read, their decoding skills strengthen step-by-step. Some readers take to it like a duck to water and read smoothly with expression. Their oral reading matches...
What Is ORF Anyway?
Issac sat down across the table from me. I said hello and then read the directions on my screen to him just as I had read to countless other students...
Helping Kids Lead Every Day: Differentiate with Precision
As I looked out into the classroom during reading time, for the most part, the kids were working. I saw students huddled together in groups silently reading, or they were...
