I am so grateful to have this resource available to me as an educator at no cost. Maybe someday, I’ll get to thank whoever is behind the Google Curtain in person. In the meantime, I’ll share what’s been working and I’ll look forward to hearing about how some of you end up doing it even better!
When we know the purpose or the why in our work we work intentionally. As teachers, knowing our writers are working with intention allows us to trust the students. With trust, we can step back and allow students to make the decisions about their writing.
Synthesizing is that step we can’t skip when teaching our writers to craft research writing. It is within the wait time between the research and the writing that students gain their best understandings. Here are five strategies to help your writers fill that wait time with meaningful ways to get their gears in motion in a mixing of new thinking.
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.
This week, I welcome Katie Bristol as a guest blogger. Katie teaches kindergarten in Simsbury, CT, and she is my go-to person whenever I have a question about the youngest members of our school community. While her post may seem specific to kindergarten, her insights are important to educators who work in all grades. Follow Katie on twitter @bristol_katie.
The decisions I make from the classroom library to family connections are intentional and responsive to building a community of writers and learning about the students who make up this community.
Using video and visuals helped this young third-grader lead his class in a lesson on rehearsal and planning.
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?
Teaching students to take the risks necessary to be inventive spellers means I have to respect the stage of development of the student. I can’t expect the students to know (or use) something I haven’t taught. It also means communicating to parents about what it means to use inventive spelling and its role in developing writers and readers.
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.
It can feel scary and uncertain to step away from a traditional practice like assigning homework. Following your teacher heart (and your gut) and reading what other professionals and researchers have shared can make you feel more confident in taking a risk and trying a new policy. Read on to see how one teacher (me) changed how and why homework is assigned.
No longer scared and timid, our work has forged a community of writers.
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.
I’ve been tinkering with Instagram Stories this summer. I’ve discovered several ways teacher-writers can use them as a tool for living and storytelling.
Do you wish you can save all the bits of inspiration and ideas you read on Twitter? Now you can! Read on for an easy way to never lose those tweets again.
“If you were going to give just one piece of advice to a colleague who is just starting out with writing workshop, what would it be?”
As a literacy coach and consultant, this is a question that I have been asked again and again… and again.
And each time my answer is the same.
A glance at the clock tells me we have just three minutes to get our coats and lunches and line up. Students are still writing, but now there is no time to gather and share. I sigh, realizing this has become a pattern; without a clear plan for making the share happen, it often does not. But all that will change because… This is the year I’m going to make share time a priority!
“It’s a practice,” is a common refrain from the instructor in my yoga class. That being said, if my mat is anywhere close to a certain yoga rockstar, I admit it–I find myself… Continue reading
Welcome to a crash course in setting up partnerships for your writing workshop. You’ll find actionable steps to get started with room to grow and make partnerships a seamless part of your workshop environment.
