Be sure to leave a comment today for a chance to win Paula Bourque’s must-read book, Spark! Quick Writes to Kindle Hearts and Minds in Elementary Classrooms. You are going to want this book!
This year I had the opportunity to try out flexible seating with brand new furniture. It’s been an adventure and I’ve learned many lessons along the way. What are your experiences with flexible seating?
If your students participated in the Classroom SOLSC, then please take three minutes to fill out this survey. Your responses will help us shape future Classroom Challenges!
It’s hard to fathom how many sites, blog posts, articles, songs, images, videos, and more are available to teachers at any given moment. There are so many brilliant and generous educators creating and sharing their expertise, lessons, and ideas. The challenge is how to keep it all organized and accessible! In this post, I will share some ways I digitally organize my resources.
Teachers cannot stop learning and growing. We cannot rely on the way it’s always been done or stay stuck in the methods we learned years ago in teacher preparation classes. We need to embrace opportunities to strengthen our professional learning. This week, our blog series aims to do just that! We hope you will share your best ideas and tips with us. Commenting on our posts in this series will put you in the running to win a copy of Welcome to Writing Workshop: Engaging Today’s Students with a Model That Works by Stacey Shubitz and Lynne Dorfman!
Are you looking for ways to make word study more inspiring, meaningful, practical and transferrable? Word Study That Sticks: Best Practices K-6 by Pamela Koutrakos is the resource you need to read! Check out my review of the book today and leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of the book!
It’s Week 2 of the Classroom SOLSC! If you aren’t participating with your students but would like to support our student bloggers with comments, we welcome your support! Students are working so hard thismonth and comments are very motivating. Just click on the Padlet and select a class to read and respond to! This week we are talking about keeping the enthusiasm going in our second week of the challenge.
How do you build excitement, stay organized and keep track of all the commenting during the Classroom SOLSC? Read on for my best ideas and then please share your own in the comments!
Welcome to the Classroom SOLSC! We moved to April…no fooling! Student bloggers, this is your month! Thank you to the dedicated educators who are inspiring students to live like a writer all month long.
The Classroom SOLSC is in April this year and it gives me an extra month to reflect, plan and prepare! How are you helping students to get ready for this challenge?
Persuasive speech writing is a powerful way to show students their voices matter, to use the mandated curriculum as that springboard for thinking critically. But before my students begin to write speeches, there is work to be done.
This year, the Classroom Slice of Life Story Challenge is making a move from March to April! Read to find out more about the challenge and how you can take part!
Will you consider being part of the March SOLSC Welcome Wagon?
How do you when you are a writer? I’ve been following my daughter’s journey and watching her grow in her belief she is a writer. I’m a believer, too.
How do you help writers bridge the gap from paragraph writing to essay writing? What are your favorite strategies for elaboration?
There is no one “correct” way to organize writer’s notebooks. So much depends upon the purpose the notebooks serve in your classroom and how students will utilize them during writing time. My goal with this post is to share different possibilities for organizing writer’s notebooks and present you with various options. To section or not to section will depend on how you see writer’s notebooks and the role they play in your workshop.
Making some time and space in the day to celebrate a student each week has enriched my class as readers, writers, and human beings. How do you use writing to lift up the students in your class?
What are the educational issues calling your name? How can you use writing to share about your teaching experiences? A Long Island Writing Project workshop, facilitated by Katherine Schulten, inspired me to keep sharing my teaching stories.
In what ways have you pushed yourself to try a new type of writing or to share your ideas in a public way? In July, I pushed myself to write a keynote speech and learned lessons along the way.
Do you receive letters from your students at the start of the year? Do you write them back? In what ways do you get to know new students? How do you keep track of the information and use it as a guide for helping your writers grow?
