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Coaching Conversations: Collaborating and Celebrating Small Victories
Natasha Axelson shares some of the surprises and challenges of coaching, as well as the importance of celebrating small victories with Brenda Power in this audio interview. A full transcript...
Reflection and Growth with New Teachers
As a teacher leader with the Teacher Mentor Program in my district, I shared Charlotte Danielson’s P-T-R-A cycle with new teachers and their mentors. P-T-R-A stands for Plan, Teach, Reflect,...
Picture It: Mirroring
Askwomen.net defines mirroring as “A powerful tool that enables you to build closeness…Mirroring body language is a non-verbal way to say 'I am like you, I feel the same.’” Here...
Forming a Partnership with a New Coach
My first years of coaching came at a time when our district began a five-year literacy initiative which brought the workshop model into every classroom for reading and writing. In...
Find the Common Ground
I knew I was going to fail. It was inevitable. The school was going through a state-sanctioned improvement process, and part of their plan for improvement was for grade-level teams...
Reading Passports
Has the traditional reading log run its course in your classroom? I have found that by the intermediate grades, the typical nightly reading log no longer has a useful purpose...
Reorganizing the Classroom Library
When entering my classroom, you immediately notice one thing: books. The classroom library now houses more than 3,000 titles. In more than 14 years of teaching, I have amassed quite...
Inviting Book Tub Titles: Nonfiction Library Redesign
The Dewey Decimal System is an organizer’s dream for placing an expanding supply of informational texts into a library, a way to help readers find what they need with the...
Books for Studying Illustration with First Graders
After many weeks of helping students get acquainted with the routines in writing workshop, I am excited to begin our first study. With such young writers, the notion of study...
Texts to Teachers
As we deepen our understanding of the Common Core, we are realizing more than ever that the texts we use matter. Finding just the right text or set of texts...
Understanding Study: Noticing Pictures
On a warm afternoon in late September, it was time to begin our first unit in writing workshop. I was a little nervous that my first graders might not be...
Summer’s a Gypsy
She takes the hand of Juno and walks through a thin wash of rain into light. Her toes loosen the quickening earth. She stops to weave the lush strands...
Reader Response in the Digital Age
I recently finished the book We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. It is an amazing young adult novel with an ending that begs to be discussed. I knew I couldn’t...
Creating a Healthy Classroom Culture the First Week of School
Teachers are lucky: we get two New Year’s Days when we get to celebrate and make resolutions for a fresh start. The most important one, of course, is the unofficial...
Digital Boards for Formative Assessment
Formative assessment drives instruction. Without it, we would have no idea what to teach to whom we are teaching. However, with grades and standardized tests bombarding our classrooms, I find...
Preparing to Model Writing Workshop
Of all the work I do as a coach, I continue to believe modeling makes the biggest difference in transforming instructional practices. I used to spend hours secluded in my...
Books for Brain Breaks
The bathroom. I couldn’t believe we were talking about the bathroom during my teacher evaluation last year. I thought I had a great plan for using the bathroom. My kindergarten...
Community Board: Invitations to Independence
Our Community Area is a large space where we gather for meetings, lessons, and read-alouds. It gives students an unobstructed view of the Smartboard for shared texts and e-books; the...
Leading a Multi-Day Curriculum Meeting
Twenty-four people. Six and a half hours a day. Four days. Two curricula to write. One coordinator to facilitate it all: me. All school year, I heard other coordinators...
Finding Purpose in Coaching with Organized Notes
The first two years of my coaching career were fun, and a lot of time was spent on building relationships, but I am not sure we accomplished as much as...
Helping Allison Redesign Her Classroom Nonfiction Library
Visiting other teachers’ classrooms during my 28 years of teaching has provided a privileged way to see how classroom design, especially the classroom library’s design, affects children's learning lives. I...
