Whenever I used to hear the words "Center Time" I immediately thought about early childhood classrooms. However, that notion changed in 2008 when I created a Poetry Station for my fourth graders. The Poetry Station was created for students to use during the "morning work" period of the school day. It was a choice, not… Continue reading (Writing) Center Time for Older Students
Category: teaching tools
The Power of the Parts
I'm slowly making my way through the keynote addresses from last week's Writing Institute. Today I bring to you my notes and some highlights from Roy Peter Clark's speech, "The Power of the Parts: How Writers Learn and How Teachers Teach." Clark wrote a book I've been reading for awhile now, Writing Tools: 50 Essential… Continue reading The Power of the Parts
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I Can…
As promised, I'm going to be blogging about a variety of sessions I attended at NCTE this past weekend. Some sessions dealt with the teaching of writing, while others dealt with 21st Century Literacy, Reading Workshop, and parent engagement. Yesterday morning I woke up early to attend "Assessment in the Reading Workshop," which was hosted… Continue reading I Can…
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Trading My Favorite Classroom Spaces
Trading Our Favorite Spaces: 1 of 2 Originally uploaded by teachergal Mary Lee & Franki are hosting something of a blog carnival over at A Year of Reading. It's called Trading (Our Favorite) Spaces. Click here to learn more about it &/or to submit photos of your favorite space by September 1st. I'm posting just… Continue reading Trading My Favorite Classroom Spaces
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Get More Tools at http://twowritingteachers.com!
Last August we made our blog live. This August, we're delighted to announce the launch of Two Writing Teachers -- The Website! Essentially, our new website is a place where you can go to find lots of tools (and links to related blog posts) to help you with various units of study you might teach… Continue reading Get More Tools at http://twowritingteachers.com!
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Tim Russert… White Boards… Respect for Low-Tech Teaching…
Most Sunday mornings, I can be found watching "Meet the Press." This Sunday morning I watched "Meet the Press," but not really, since Russert's chair was empty. As I'm sure you know by now, Tim Russert, the host of "Meet the Press" died of a heart attack this past Friday afternoon. The world of politics,… Continue reading Tim Russert… White Boards… Respect for Low-Tech Teaching…
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Confessions of a Writing Teacher
I didn't teach the literary essay unit of study until last year. Why? I WAS SCARED TO DEATH TO TEACH IT! It seemed so complicated and so important... what if I messed up? Well, I bit the bullet last year since my rationale for not teaching it was not acceptable in my mind. I taught… Continue reading Confessions of a Writing Teacher
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Writing Miles Apart
I visited my old school this past fall and had lunch with several of my former students, some of whom were part of DEAL WITH IT! Powerful Words from Smart, Young Women, and asked them if they were interested in writing another book. Well, I FINALLY have a cohesive cadre of girls together who have… Continue reading Writing Miles Apart
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New Plan Book
Ruth introduced me to Winkflash a few weeks ago. I signed up for their services and received a $19.99 special deal to create a photo book of up to 100 pages. Hence, I decided to create my own lesson plan book. I created templates in Word, scanned them in, saved them as jpgs, uploaded them… Continue reading New Plan Book
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Working My Way Backwards
I started a story mountain for my W.W. minilesson demo today. I started with the climax of the story: Then, I started working my way backwards: I'm hoping this will illustrate for my students that you don't start at the beginning of and work your way forward. Sometimes, you have to go backwards and forwards… Continue reading Working My Way Backwards
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research mania.
Let's be honest. How many of you out there about lose your mind during the research phase of expository writing? Here in Indiana, it is expected that beginning in 3rd grade, students use the Internet to find facts for their expository writing. Now I'm all for technology . . . and learning to integrate it… Continue reading research mania.
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How can we help?
I noticed that the First Year Teacher Page is one of the second most-popular "post" on our blog. Since we're about one month into the school year, I wanted to ask HOW we can really help you more? Are there forms or templates you want to see? What kind of things can Ruth and I… Continue reading How can we help?
