Teaching kids how to teach a minilesson might be easier than you think.
Patterns of Power: Review + Giveaway
At a time when thoughts turn to sandy beaches and alarm clock-less days, it takes a very special professional book to make me wish (at least a little) that it was September and I could start implementing all these fabulous, fun and important lessons now! Patterns of Power: Inviting Young Writers into the Conventions of Language is a book that will make you happy to have the opportunity to be a teacher, working with young writers to help them explore, wonder, and apply the conventions they learn. It's a book that I believe will transform how teachers and students look at conventions
Tuesday Slice of Life Story Challenge
Welcome to the Tuesday Slice of Life Story Challenge!
A few ideas for conferring
Potentially, one of the most impactful opportunities we have for making a lasting difference on our students as writers is when we pull up next to them and confer with them. It's SO worth spending some time reflecting, setting goals, and developing tools and strategies for the conferring work we do as teachers.
Spontaneous Sparks
My students got extra creative when we used some extra time in a spontaneous way!
End of Year Reflections and June Planning
As we approach the end of another school year, many of us begin making plans for outgrowing ourselves. But what might be some lenses to think through when taking on such a task? I have a few ideas . . .
Making the Writer Better: Getting Started with Blogging
As I move forward in planning summer professional development for the teachers in my district, I am already finding the infographic invaluable. In planning my session, “Getting Started with Blogging” I found the information on the infographic guiding each slide and each step as I planned the presentation.
Slice of Life Tuesday
Tuesdays are Slice of Life days. Welcome to our community or writers, readers, and commenters.
ICYMI: The 4th Annual #TWTBlog Author Spotlight Series
Last week, nine authors and illustrators stopped by to share their expertise with us. In case you missed it, this post includes links to each of their posts, which include giveaways of their books, virtual author visits, and more!
The Amazing Search for Joseph Cornell
In today's final Author Spotlight post of the year, Candy Fleming shares a bit about how her most recent book, The Amazing Collection of Joey Cornell, came to be.
Embracing Rejection: It’s All in the Attitude
The last time I had a story rejected, I’ll admit I was disappointed…for about two minutes. Then I rejected the negative feelings and sent the story to a different publisher…
A Peek Into Our Process
We are both living the dream – kids, community commitments, a day-job we love, great friends – the list goes on. Although we wouldn’t change a thing, writing can take a toll and can easily slip by the wayside if we do not plan for it. We prioritize it, and we make sure we set… Continue reading A Peek Into Our Process

