Recently, I heard the TED Talk by Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith on the 7 Types of Rest that every person needs. This particular talk shares the types of rest and how we as adults can make time and space for rest. In the talk she heavily focuses on how to bring rest into your workday and... Continue Reading →
Teaching is such a complicated, difficult profession. Don't worry about being great at it. Focus on being faithful.
Have you avoided poetry as a teacher as much as possible? Does your class groan when you say it's the next unit? Does poetry make you or your students feel uncomfortable or less confident? Poetry can be really fun! I hope at least one of these 10 ideas helps you embrace it!
I am a hard core introvert. For anyone who finds the Myers Briggs personality framework applicable, I am an INFJ, meaning I am introverted, intuitive, feeling, and judging. If you're an INFJ, then you might automatically feel an affinity for me as I probably would for you knowing that information. On an introvert-extrovert scale, I'm... Continue Reading →
When 5th grade students are reading at a primary level or a 7th grader is still at a 3rd or 4th grade level, it can be hard to make sure they're engaged in what they're reading and don't feel embarrassed by the books they hold in class. I'm sharing why I believe you should let students reach for texts that are out of their instructional level. There are benefits to this for them, books you can use that will be less of a stretch, and other strategies you can use to support them in their reading growth and identity as a reader.
Do you struggle finding age appropriate books that are still accessible based on the reading level of your struggling readers? These recommendations should give you lots of ideas for which books to press into your students' hands!
Podcasts will be an ideal resource for teaching this year. Whether you're teaching in person with distance and looking for varied independent work or online and have run out of audiobook links, podcasts could make for great independent learning.
If you teach elementary, you're likely familiar with the idea of a morning meeting or class meeting. This is typically a time for community building and connection. When we had to switch to online learning in Spring 2020, I knew I wanted to keep elements of morning meeting. Here are 5 ideas (picture prompts, collaborative google slides, partner games, whole class games, and Flipgrid) for building connections online.
Google Slides are great for Collaborative Work! Think about collaborative story writing, number sense routine discussions, jigsaw reading, and more! See my periodic table project for one such idea.
Charmed by Challenge 