Tag Archives: things made of awesome

How I did on my final exam and what my students can teach us all about how to get along

by Sarah M. Zerwin Posted on December 19, 2012

My seniors just finished their final for this semester, a formal speech of their research paper argument about a controversial issue in society. We organized these speeches into panel presentations focused on broad topics that unified 2 to 5 individual … Continue reading →

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Reflections on NCTE 2012, looking back from a dining room table in Iowa

by Sarah M. Zerwin Posted on November 20, 2012

Okay so I didn’t write yet for conference day three. I blame the Las Vegas strip. After the last session we attended Saturday, we headed out to explore the strip. That means that we walked from the MGM Grand all … Continue reading →

Posted in engagement, Haiku, literacy, making change, professional development, teaching reading, teaching writing, things made of awesome | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Adventures in Parent/Teacher Conferences, Part 1 (of 3 we hope)

by Sarah M. Zerwin Posted on October 14, 2012

I’m tired. Parent/Teacher conferences do that to me. It seems like it takes a few days to recover. And my recovery days this time around were an all-day field trip the next day, an evening conference the day after that, … Continue reading →

Posted in 21st century teaching and learning, assessment, grading, teaching writing, technology, things made of awesome | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Snow Day!

by Sarah M. Zerwin Posted on February 3, 2012

The snow day is one of the true gifts of being a teacher. Mister S and I do a lot of writing in this blog where we push back at certain parts of our teacher world. We do that push … Continue reading →

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Response to PhDs as K12 teachers…

by Sarah M. Zerwin Posted on January 10, 2012

Greetings! We’re a bit overwhelmed over here at how many folks read that last blog post. That’s kind of awesome. But what’s REALLY awesome is a comment the post received from one of my husband’s former biology students–funny how the … Continue reading →

Posted in 21st century teaching and learning, education, teaching, things made of awesome, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

This is how The Paper Graders are getting through finals week

by Sarah M. Zerwin Posted on December 13, 2011

Over-the-top tins of cookies from well-meaning students…   and Extreme Sheep Herding.    

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Research papers rock!

by Sarah M. Zerwin Posted on December 1, 2011

I’ve discovered the iPhone app Songify, which enabled me to make this: Research Papers Rock It’s a big paper, we’ve been working on it for a while, their second rough draft is due tomorrow (final draft by Monday), the semester … Continue reading →

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First ever NCTE, the first day–what’s resonating

by Sarah M. Zerwin Posted on November 18, 2011

Let me begin by saying how totally awesome it is to have wifi. I had no idea how much I rely on it to do my thinking and my work and to interact with the world. The iPhone screen is … Continue reading →

Posted in 21st century teaching and learning, professional development, teaching, things made of awesome | Tagged , , | 1 Comment