Who wants to rewrite curriculum this summer? (Anyone? Anyone?…..) Let’s be honest. Writing or rewriting curriculum is a ongoing process that, while necessary, is not always seen as the most positive experience. Moreover, the suggestion of spending summer days writing curriculum (paid or unpaid) may trigger range of emotions, some strangely akin to the model offered by Swiss psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in her 1969 book, On […]
Colette Bennett
Colette Marie Bennett is the Curriculum Coordinator for English Language Arts, Social Studies, Library Media, and Testing for the West Haven Public School System in West Haven, Connecticut.
Previous to this position, she served as the Chief Academic Officer (7-12) for Regional School System #6 in Litchfield, Connecticut. She has 23 years of teaching experience in English Language Arts from grades 6-12, including electives in journalism, drama, and film studies.
A graduate of the Alternate Route to Certification, Bennett also has a Masters in English from Western Connecticut State University a 6th year in Advanced Teaching and an 092 Administrative Certificate from Sacred Heart University, and graduate credits from the GLSP in Social Studies at Wesleyan University. She holds a Literacy Certification (102) from Sacred Heart University for grades K-12.
She has presented how technology is incorporated in classrooms at the Connecticut Computers in Education Conference (2010, 2012, 2014), the National Council of Teachers Annual Conference (2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015), and the Advanced Placement Annual Conference (2011) the Literacy for All Conference (2012), and the ICT for Language Learning in Florence, Italy (2014).
She blogs about education at Used Books in Class: http://usedbookclassroom.wordpress.com/
She tweets at Teachcmb56@twitter.com
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Information in Google Doodles Build Background Knowledge
That letter “O” morphing on your search engine for Mother’s Day?That spinning Globe for Earth Day?Those jigging leprechauns for St. Patrick’s Day?These are all the Google Doodles from 2015 to celebrate holidays. There are also Google doodle tributes to individuals. Emmy Noether (physicist), Laura Ingalls Wilder (author), and Anna Atkins (botanist) have been featured in doodles this […]
Posted inEducational Apps, High School, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy
The Treasure Trove of Language: In Praise of the Thesaurus
All hail.…extol.…laud the mighty Roget’s Thesaurus! Any one struggling with trying to find the right word can attest to the support that he or she may have found in the pages of Roget’s Thesaurus, a reference book that celebrates its birthday every April 29th. Writers pour through its pages in the hunt to find an alternate to “said” (articulated, […]
Posted inHigh School, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy, Middle School, Social Studies
News Storytelling of Lincoln’s Assassination Will Engage Students
News stories are generally written in what is commonly known as the inverted pyramid style, in which the opening paragraph features the “5 Ws” of journalism: Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How. The reason for this style is so that the reader gets the most important information up front. Given the amount of time […]
Posted inFeatured, High School, Literacy
Teachers as Voice Over for the Student-Hero Journey
Saturday, March 14th, Cornelius Minor, a Staff Developer at The Reading & Writing Project gave the luncheon keynote address to over 300 educators at the 2nd Annual Conference for The Teaching Studio at The Learning Community, a public charter school in Central Falls, Rhode Island. While he began his address with humor and participation, Minor quickly got to […]
Posted inAsk a Teacher, Current Events in Education, Educational Apps, From the Front Lines, High School, Instructional Strategies, Literacy, New Teacher Bootcamp, Recruitment & Retention, Teacher Branding
#SATCHAT’s Coalition of the Willing Should Be in Teacher Ed Programs
Rather than sleep in, hundreds of educators spend Saturday mornings (7:30 EST) tweeting away on Twitter in discussions with other educators worldwide about current issues in education. The hashtag #satchat takes educators to the discussion selected for that morning. The topics are usually posted by one of the coordinators so that educators can prepare in advance for […]
Posted inCommon Core, Current Events in Education, High School, How to Fix Education, Literacy, Uncategorized
"I'm Not an Educator, but I Portray One" Experts in Ed Reform
There are advertising campaigns that successfully employ the technique of “advertised ignorance” or “false authority” where an individual proudly declares that he or she is not an expert just before rendering an expert opinion. An example for this form of advertising was from a series of promotions for Vicks Formula 44 cough syrup starring actors who portrayed doctors on popular […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, From the Front Lines, High School, Literacy, Uncategorized
Testing a Thousand Madelyns
My niece is a beautiful little girl. She is a beautiful girl on the outside, the kind of little girl who cannot take a bad picture. She is also beautiful on the inside. She is her mother’s helper, fiercely loyal to her older brothers, and a wonderful example for her younger brother and sisters. She […]