I took a writing class a few years ago with a famous author. We would write for ten minutes then meditate for ten minutes. The process was repeated at least a dozen times over the weekend. I had a little meditation practice but nothing routine. The author was a Zen Buddhist and she talked us […]
Instruction & Curriculum
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
How Response Notebooks Differ From Reading Logs
When I moved from teaching high school to teaching 8th grade English three years ago, I was introduced to an independent reading requirement: each student would read one book of their own choosing each quarter. How we chose to implement this requirement was up to the teacher, but each student had to produce a product […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Are SPED Teachers Being Wells Fargoed? How Special Education Resembles the Wells Fargo Scandal
Cross-Posted at maribeeappletree Those that handle our funds have a fiduciary duty to properly handle our hard-earned money, right? Recently our faith was shaken. In order to keep their $12 per hour jobs, low level Wells Fargo employees opened fraudulent bank and credit card accounts in their customers’ names. Top executives pushed managers to […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Celebrating Banned Books in the Classroom
Even though Banned Books Week has officially passed, you don’t have to restrict talking about censorship to just one week of the school year. In fact, I would encourage you to discuss censorship and why books might be challenged throughout the school year, not just for a week in September. I actually like to keep banned […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Stress and Mess: Deliberate Practice and Professional Obligation — Part I
Editor’s Note: Writers Dan McConnell and Jake Miller teamed up to take on two driving buzz words – “deliberate practice” and “professional obligation” – and explore how they’re driving teachers to stress. DAN: Teacher Stress Is Not Blessed Teacher stress is a very real problem, and without reforms where they are truly needed, that is […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Differentiated Assessments in the Inclusion Classroom and Beyond
A great way to begin a discussion on differentiated assessments is to answer, “What does the word assessment mean to you?” This question holds a lot of meaning for a lot of different people. For some teachers, assessment means giving students quizzes and tests. For others, it means much more. In order to determine how […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Six Reasons Why Tests Suck
I’ve probably given hundreds of tests during my career, but the truth is, if I had the choice, I would never give my ELA students tests of any kind. This is one of those things that has sort of snuck up on me over the years. For example, I used to give a test on […]
Posted inCommon Core
Have You Been To A #GAFE Summit?
I’ve been teaching for 26 years – English, AVID, Yearbook, Reading, History and any sort of intervention class that gets thrown my way. I’ve been through whole language and back. I’ve survived NCLB. I’ve been trained in teaching the Gifted and Talented, the At-Risk and 21st-century students. And last weekend, I went to my first […]