Back to School Favorites for ELA Teachers
2025 is my 25th back to school season! While I began my teaching career in 1998 (with a few years off staying home with my littlest), every back to school season seems even more exciting than the one before. Over the years, I have written
Language Arts Classroom Ideas
As a teacher, I find coming up with new classroom ideas each year to be one of the most fun but also tricky parts of the back-to-school season. On one hand, you want to optimize student learning and maximize instructional time, but classrooms are not emotionless
25 Must-Haves for Your ELA Classroom
As a teacher, I am always on the hunt for the perfect tools at the cheapest prices for my ELA classroom. Taking care of our students and keeping our learning centers stocked and ready is just ingrained in our brain. Whether you are beginning your
Bulletin Board Letters Made Easy (SIMPLE Steps)
My classroom is the home away from home for my students and me, so I try to make it as welcoming, inviting, and full of inspiration as possible. A few years ago, I decided to change things up and try DIY bulletin board ideas to
ELA Word Work FUN for BIG KIDS
I am always looking for ways to enhance my students' work with spelling and vocabulary. Whether you focus on a weekly spelling list or vocabulary word work, students get bored doing the same tasks each week. For Reading Street, students are expected to complete a
Best Reasons to Incorporate Reader's Theater into your Middle School Classroom
Reader's theater is the perfect tool to add to your middle school ELA toolbox for so many reasons: it is interactive, highly engaging, enhances student fluency, and targets and enriches reading comprehension, all while strengthening vocabulary. Here are the top reasons why I decided to make






