Articles for Teachers
“Please encourage us!”
(For context if you're reading this after 2020, I am writing this during quarantine due to the Coronavirus. What a time to be an educator. This email response from a kind, loyal educator just gives us a glimpse into what life is like right now. It's tough...but so...
The Only Writing Skills You Need to Teach {Informational Text}
As you probably know by now from all of my writing-related postings of late, I’m obsessively thinking about writing. It is a topic that I used to tiptoe around because I didn’t have a clue as to how to teach it. But now I’ve constructed the skill of writing, and I...
My #1 Most Valuable Management Technique
So, I've held out long enough on you. (Come closer...I have a secret to tell you...) I have the magic bullet. Yep - the holy grail of teaching techniques. Uh huh. The one technique that will save you time, save your sanity, help you teach more content, lessen your...
Why I Think PLCs are a Waste of Time
One of the things that I’ve become really aware of lately is how much time is wasted in schools on things that really don’t have a big enough impact on kids to make them worthwhile. Some examples of things that I think take up a TON of time and don’t have a huge...
Dump This in Writing + Double the Results (no gimmick/video incl.!)
Click here to watch the video right now You guys. I used to SKIP TEACHING WRITING ALL OF THE TIME because I didn't know how to do it well. It was like, "Oh, we have an assembly in 20 days from now...I better now teach writing today." (I'm exaggerating only a...
Why we teach comprehension skills/strategies…DUH!?!
For those of you who have heard me speak in person, you know that I come from a complete place of humility about teaching. Throughout my speaking gigs, I say, "I didn't have a clue about this when I taught!" or "All of my former students are probably in prison...