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Making the Most of Transitions
If you’re anything like us, September is exciting in its newness. It can also be challenging because of your memory of what it’s like to teach the kids you taught...
Starting the Year Together
One of the best things about working to support readers in a school community is the collaboration with teachers. There is the obvious benefit of having two sets of eyes,...
Getting Out of the Tater Tot Office: The Importance of Visibility
In my role as a literacy coach, I’ve shared a lot of spaces with a lot of people and a lot of “stuff”: spaces with walls of computer equipment, stuffed...
Student-Centered Room Setup
There’s nothing quite like starting the school year. Even though it’s hard for us to say goodbye to summer, the feelings of newness and possibility that September bring are unique....
Life Without the Big Teacher’s Desk
You’ve decided to get rid of your big teacher’s desk. There are some good reasons that support this decision. First of all, the big teacher’s desk is really a relic...
Creating a Space for Peace
A week after winter break, there were more tears than smiles in my classroom. Like most first-grade classrooms, we had our share of disagreements and upset feelings, but the difference...
Helping Young Readers Focus on Print
“Get your mouth ready,” prompted Lily. Deshawn gave her a quizzical look, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and went on to miscue “berries” as “grapes.” Lily...
Thinking About Fluency
As a reading teacher, I used to joke that it was important to spend time teaching fluency as a matter of sanity. That’s being a bit flip, but fluency is...
Making PLCs Work: Shifting the Tone
Our weekly professional learning community (PLC) meetings were sailing along. Each week they started with pleasantries and chitchat. Usually, someone had curriculum questions that needed to be answered. I tried...
The Words We Use
Our small team of teachers gathered around the table. The school hallways had not yet filled with the morning sounds of students entering the building, and our mugs were still...
No Special Class
We recently received this note from the mother of one of our students. Take a moment and really read it. What story does it tell? There’s a high probability that...
Professional Development Offerings for the New Year
I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they learn. Albert Einstein A few years ago, my daughter entered a drug awareness contest....
Beginnings, Middles, and Endings: The Power of Baseline Assessments
Controlled chaos—or to a passerby perhaps it looked more like complete chaos. A literal buzz was emanating from my classroom during the last week of the school year, to the...
The Value of Pre-Assessment
Heading into a new school year, or even a new unit, a helpful strategy to remember involves tapping in to what students already know. Pre-assessing at the beginning of a...
Getting to Know Writers: Using Quotes
One of the ways to jump-start the conversation about writing process is to read and reflect upon what other writers have to say about their own process. Information about authors...
Making PLCs Work: Getting Teacher Input
The teaching staff in my district is given an extraordinary gift each week. Every classroom teacher is given 50 quiet, uninterrupted minutes to collaborate with his or her grade-level team...
Laying the Foundation for Genre Writing
“These are just terrible!” Elaine said with a sigh. Her colleagues nodded glumly in agreement. This first-grade team was examining samples of student writing and their writing conference notes to...
Essential Resources for Building Professional Learning Communities
Professional learning communities, or PLCs, have become almost ubiquitous in US schools. Most educators are aware of this philosophy for structuring collaborative teacher learning. Yet common knowledge of the best...
Getting to Know Writers: The Inventory
Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on. Louis L’Amour I would imagine this is wise advice for reluctant writers or...
Managing the Email Load
In my role as a principal, I feel like a slave to email pretty much all of the time. I get hundreds of emails a day, and it feels like...
A Joyful Mess
Learning something new can be messy. When I learned to roll my own pie shells, flour covered the counters and floor and me. A white cloud hovered in the kitchen....
