The Storming of the Capitol
In response to today’s events at the U.S. Capitol, our team would like to share some thoughts with you as you prepare for tomorrow with students.
Three Ways to Find Joy & Keep Writing
We are now entering week seven in our school district. At the start of the year, there was much to think about and much to worry about. There were many … Continue Reading Three Ways to Find Joy & Keep Writing
Wordless Slides: Another Way To Get To Know Students
No matter where or how the year begins for classrooms, getting to know students is one of the most important parts of teaching. Wordless slides worked great!
Seen, Valued, Heard: Providing Feedback AFTER Establishing Community
If your fall instruction plan includes any kind of virtual teaching, then building and maintaining relationships will be more crucial than ever. In order to engage and motivate students, educators must work to genuinely connect with students before focusing on academics.
Seen, Valued, Heard: Leveraging Shared Writing to Build Community
In my experience, many young writers struggle to use a writer’s notebook as a tool. They’re excited to have a notebook but unclear about what to “do” in there. Shared writing can be a powerful way to teach writers how to generate ideas for writing and to get themselves started, based on the books we are reading and discussing as a community.
Seen, Valued, Heard: Writing Partnerships to Establish Community
In our blog series this week, the team at Two Writing Teachers hopes to support you in the common purpose of building community in your classrooms, however those classrooms may look this year. One important building block of community is helping kids feel connected through partnerships. Read on for ideas on this important topic . . .
Seen, Valued, Heard: Name Studies to Establish Community
There is importance in a name. Our names are entry ways into our identities and they can have great impact in cultivating classroom communities where students can thrive and grow.
The Unpredictability of a Writer’s Process
Writing has been a struggle for several weeks now. Today I take you through my process to get where I am now and the journey I intend to continue.
Widening the Classroom Community to Include Families
In the last two months, our world has required us to live in the space of continuous new experiences. All of us, but especially the world of education, have taken a hard and immediate shift. It would be blind denial to say it has been easy, but this past week has taken me by surprise.
Be a Rainbow in Someone Else’s Cloud Right Now
Maya Angelou said, “Prepare yourself, so that you can be a rainbow in somebody else’s cloud.” I’m working on it. I hope you’ll join me.
Building a New Community
How are you finding ways to connect and bring a community of learners together?
Back to School Themes and Reflections
What are the themes that you come back to each school year? Today I explore the topics that I come back to each new year and share links from previous posts. Please share your ideas in the comments!
Food Writing, Community Building, and a Book Giveaway
Writing workshop thrives when a community of children come together as writers who know each other. The first six weeks of school is when we build community. Here’s one way to build relationships and encourage kids to write about one of their favorite things simultaneously.
Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win a copy of Eric Carle and Friends’ newest book, What’s Your Favorite Food?
(Writing) Life Imitates Art: Finding Inspiration in Ralph Fletcher’s Instagram
The creative lives we maintain outside of writing fill us up as humans with stories to tell. When we bring this life into the writing workshop, it builds community, and it lays the foundation for lifelong writers who have strategies for sustaining their own writing lives.
The Importance of Starting Practice with WHY: Nurturing Independence from the Start
How often do we ask ourselves about what leads our thinking on the teaching of writing? Is our purpose curriculum, or something much more significant? Why do we teach the way we do? And… How do we articulate why this, not that?
They Are All Precious
Each life we impact matters. Each one of the children with whom we interact is currently living into an uncertain future. Thus, with kindness and resolution, we greet writers each day and do all we can to help them learn what it takes to make their voices heard through the power of the metaphorical pen. This is our work.
Thoughtful Third Grader: Building Relationships Through Writing
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?
Write Them Back!
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?
The Forging of a Writing Community
No longer scared and timid, our work has forged a community of writers.
Our Favorite “Back-to-School” Posts
Whether you’re already back in school or returning in the next two weeks, I’ve rounded up some of our team’s best blog posts that will help you launch & sustain writing workshop in 2018-19.
