Nourishing Your Teacher Soul
When your “to-do” list is super long at back-to-school time, should you take time for poetry, writing and friends? A resounding yes! How are you making time to nourish your teacher soul during these challenging times?
Starting the Year: Poetry
Let’s start the year with poetry! I’ve shared some tips, resources, and favorites that will get everyone excited to put pen to paper.
I Remember
What is a memory? What makes a moment memorable? Were they moments of utter joy and warmth? Or was there embitterment, stress, and even trauma that made it special? For … Continue Reading I Remember
My Thoughts Are Clouds: Poems for Mindfulness
Poet and educator Georgia Heard discusses My Thoughts Are Clouds: Poems for Mindfulness and talks about how both poetry and mindfulness invite us to slow down, be present, listen more deeply, while quieting our restless minds.
Seen, Valued, Heard: Poetry to Establish Community
The 2020-2021 school year will likely be different than any other school year we’ve ever known. While last year ended with emergency remote learning in most places due to COVID-19, … Continue Reading Seen, Valued, Heard: Poetry to Establish Community
Teaching From Home: Another Poetry Lesson
Today I share a poetry lesson from one of my favorite resources. This lesson is ready to use in your classroom too!
Teaching from Home: A Poetry Lesson
This is an invitation to write a poem with me today! You might also find this post helpful to you as a teacher and wish to share it with your students.
Poetry Pathways: Expanding The Possibilities of Genres You Teach
Instead of being delegated to April only, poetry can be a pathway. We can make the deliberate choice to lead our students down this road on our way to learning and sharing new information, telling a story, discovering a person from history, persuading others, playing with language, responding to reading, opportunities for collaboration, and alternatives to morning work. Poetry should be woven into the fabric of your curriculum and, can be the new road you travel down to reach many goals and objectives. Please include your favorite poetry titles in the Padlet linked in the post!
On a Snow-Melting Day + Giveaway
Prepare yourself for some exquisite words to get your writing week off to a wonderful start.
Focus Lessons: A Review and Giveaway!
Reading Ralph Fletcher’s newest book, Focus Lessons, revealed memories of my childhood much the way photos can be revealed in a pan of solution. Slowly, vividly, and magically.
Finding Interdisciplinary Opportunities in Writing Workshop
What happens when the next unit in third grade writing workshop is poetry and the classroom teacher stumbles across an anthology of bilingual poetry? This post describes how a third-grade homeroom teacher and a Spanish teacher collaborated to implement an interdisciplinary, bilingual poetry unit.
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?
The Big Book of Poems
Big, blank spaces means big possibilities for a poetry unit!
Stepping Toward Poetry
Did you experiment with some poetry now that the school year is in full swing? If not, here are a few more ideas to convince you poetry can be woven into your day. It starts with you.
Poetry Every Day in 5 Minutes or Less
For some, this might be your last evening before school begins. For others, you might be on your third week! Tonight I’m sharing five, five-minute ideas that might just help you fit poetry into your day, each day. I needed to find a solution to the lack of poetry in my day for my students and I’m hoping these ideas might just inspire some of your own as you begin a new year.
Before You Go…
It’s that time of year when we start to think about all the things we didn’t get to do with our students! Here are five writing exercises I am going to make sure students don’t leave without!
A Breakthrough In Poetry: How To Bring Playfulness to Every Genre
Kids are inundated by rules. If the gift of writing is freedom of expression, are we imposing too many “rules” on writers? What if the rules of every genre, like poetry, were limited to just two or three?
Immersion into Poetry with Centers
Third grade poetry centers are one way to immerse students in the different literary devices and figurative language we find in poems.
Poems Are Teachers: Interview & Giveaway
Poems Are Teachers, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s newest book, is grounded in the idea of writing workshop. It contains practical lessons teachers can use the very next day, as well as mentor texts written by published and student poets. Learn more about it in an interview with Amy. Then, leave a comment for a chance to win two of Amy’s books.
Building a Community of Writers: Creating the Emotional Space
Building a community of writers is likely a goal for all writing workshop teachers. But what are some ways to be intentional about bringing such a goal to fruition?
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 