Now that the first weeks of school are in the books, principals will begin scheduling classroom observations. On a full-cycle evaluation year, I am observed three times throughout the school year. This includes two scheduled observations and one that is not scheduled in advance. Despite …
Are you looking for a new way to host parent-teacher conferences? Consider switching to student led conferences to boost parent participation and student engagement. The concept works best with smaller teams where everyone can buy into the idea, but if you gain alignment, the format …
Does your school have a reading buddies program? I know some teachers avoid the concept due to scheduling hurdles, but the benefits for both groups of students are substantial. Here are some reasons to implement reading buddies into your middle school ELA schedule. Benefit #1: …
Every classroom has a wide range of readers. Typically in my class, I’ve got my FAKE readers, my reluctant readers who need the right hook, and a few who’ll devour three novels before Thanksgiving. If this sounds familiar, an independent novel study with differentiated reading …
Between homework turn-ins, read-aloud chapters, lesson instruction, questions, and discussions, a middle school ELA block disappears FAST. That’s why it is important to build time-management structures into your classroom routines. Here are 5 ways I help my middle schoolers understand how much time they have …
I’ve graded a LOT of book reports over my 26 years of teaching. Hundreds of five-paragraph plot summaries and the same “the theme of this book is…” sentence matched across every report. The traditional book report follows a predictable template that never really gives them …
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