I am a huge advocate for student choice when it comes to reading, but one thing that people repeatedly ask me is: How do you assess and grade students’ independent reading if they are all reading different books? I’ve written before about how I don’t use Reading Logs, but rather Response Notebooks. I use response […]
Posted inBack to School
5 Ways to Ensure Your Survival After Winter Break
People say that teachers have it easy because of all the breaks we get, but the truth is that we often spend at least part of our breaks catching up on grading, lesson plans, and paperwork. Before you know it, after some time with the family or with friends, drinking egg nog, and eating pie, […]
Posted inHow to Fix Education
What I Hope for The Educator’s Room in 2017
Exactly 54 months ago, I made the decision to create a space for educators where we could laugh, debate and share about what really happens in the classroom. For months I did all of the obligatory things to make sure that I could secure a strong “debut”. I secured a name for the site (alas […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
[Podcast] What’s Best for Children: An Interview with Susan Ochshorn
During this episode, Franchesca Warren talks with Susan Ochshorn who for nearly two decades, has worked in a broad range of settings at the local, state, and national levels to bridge research, policy, and practice, to integrate ECE into the larger education reform conversation, and to catalyze social change. We started with a basic question- […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
The U.S. Secretaries of Education, A History: Part 2
In the previous article, we focused on the first five Secretaries of Education. So far my advanced evalumetrics have rated them the following: 0 Unsatisfactory, 1 Needs Improvement, 3 Proficient, 0 Distinguished, and 1 Incomplete. How will the next 5 Secretaries of Education pan out? Let’s have a look: The 1990s Richard Riley, the sixth […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Book Review: ‘Play Like A Pirate’
I recently met teacher and author Quinn Rollins at the National Council for the Social Studies Conference earlier this month, and the session he led was on incorporating graphic novels into the classroom (you can read more about it in the link above). I’d be interested in teaching with graphic novels since Jeff Kinney’s first Diary of […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Rethinking the Literary Canon
There have been countless discussions launched about the need to teach the historically accepted literary pieces included in the canon. Just as controversial as the discussions engendered about the canon, so too is the definition. The “canon” is defined by dictionary.com as “a collection or list of sacred books accepted as genuine.” The very definition […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Teaching Survival Skills for Dystopia: Love
In the wake of Donald Trump’s election, it has become increasingly clear that we are entering an abnormal era of American history. The xenophobia, religious intolerance, and white supremacy, aren’t new to life in America. But, Donald Trump’s presidency has made many of us feel that the “moral arc of the universe” is bending away from […]