Yes! It IS possible to have weekends without school work. We’re several weeks into second semester, and somehow I’ve succeeded in not having to do any school work on the weekends. (Except for reading the books I teach. That I … Continue reading
I write this from my dining room table on the Monday of spring break. I can hear my husband typing away in the office. My daughter is working out an Adele song on the piano downstairs. I can hear rain–sorely … Continue reading
I am one teacher in a room of thirty (or more) writers. They need copious amounts of feedback to grow, more than it is humanly possible for me to provide for them. But yet, we teachers of writing often feel … Continue reading
One Year One Unit One Class This is the planning framework that Penny Kittle and Kelly Gallagher used today to walk us through their thinking about how to make sure they increase the volume of their students’ reading and writing. It was … Continue reading
Apparently there is a video storytelling project going on at NCTE this year. We will throw down on that because… well, because video! So stay tuned. The two ideas suggested as topics were untold stories from teaching, or ‘why do … Continue reading
Greetings! Sadly summer vacation is over and it’s time to get back at it. Well only sad because summer vacation is awesome but I have to admit I’m excited to get back to school. I love my job, my colleagues, … Continue reading
First hour: On my way into the building, I stopped off at an IEP meeting to talk about the progress of one of my students with her and her parents. This took most of first hour. I had about five … Continue reading
Just because I feel the need to be accountable to someone, here’s how my Tuesday writing evenings have been going since I recently declared that I would reserve time once each week to write: 9/4: Made declaration 9/11: Wrote about … Continue reading
I had one of those trail runs today. It was a run where my mind got totally lost and I started writing some paragraphs in my head. Didn’t even notice that my dog was straggling waaaaaaaay behind me. See this … Continue reading
For a while now, the good folks at NCTE have been fighting the good fight on class size for language arts teachers. This link goes to their policy statement on class size: More than a Number: Why Class Size Matters. … Continue reading
