If you've read Katie Wood Ray's Wondrous Words or In Pictures and In Words, you know how powerful it can be to study mentor authors and illustrators and encourage students to notice, name, and try out their craft. I have been lucky enough to have had the opportunity to do just that with students since first reading… Continue reading Today’s Epic Fail
Classroom Library Self-Assessment
Hello Twitter friends! Due to the response from my Twitter pals at the #MELit chat, I thought I'd post the recent self-assessment I created for classroom teachers and their classroom libraries here. Please don't hesitate to let me know if you have any suggestions for improvement! Will be sharing with the faculty/staff at my school… Continue reading Classroom Library Self-Assessment
Math Madness
Can you successfully complete 30 math facts in one minute? If you can't--if you can only successfully complete 20 or 22 (because damn it if you can't automatically recall that 8 + 5 = 13), would you be worried? If the answer is "yes," then I would advise you to grab a nice glass of… Continue reading Math Madness
Are You Teacher Material?
A couple of weeks ago, some colleagues expressed how conflicted they were upon hearing that their son/daughter was considering becoming a teacher. "I'm not sure I'd tell him to go for it," one colleague admitted, bemoaning how much the profession has changed since she'd begun teaching. (This was followed by much nodding of heads from… Continue reading Are You Teacher Material?
10 Signs You Just Don’t Get It
I hope someday I am proved wrong about this, but on bad days I tend to fall into that dark, depressing mindset that there are some educators who "get" it (meaning, they understand fundamental concepts about teaching and learning that cannot be denied) and some educators that don't, and that it may not be worth… Continue reading 10 Signs You Just Don’t Get It
50 Gradients of Grey
In September of 2012 Irene Fountas and Sue Pinnell, creators of the F&P Text Level Gradient and the leading voices in reading intervention as it currently exists, put out a white paper through their publisher, Heinemann Publishing, that explained their decision to make “minor adjustments” to the grade-level goals on their text level gradient, which… Continue reading 50 Gradients of Grey
“Oh No You DI-DN’T!”: Ten Apologies to my Former Students
If you are one of the two (maybe three) people who read my last post, you may think that I think that I am one of those educators who always "got it." Not true. There have been many moments during my teaching career when clearly I didn't get it--what my friend Kathy calls those "Oh… Continue reading “Oh No You DI-DN’T!”: Ten Apologies to my Former Students
You Should Be Able to Read This Post in Approximately 60 Seconds, Or You’re Stupid
The fact that this even warrants a blog post is mind-boggling to me. Tonight marked the third time in--oh, I don't know, two weeks?--when my intelligent, dutiful oldest daughter went to bed worrying about the timed math paper she was going to be forced to complete in school the next day. "We used to be… Continue reading You Should Be Able to Read This Post in Approximately 60 Seconds, Or You’re Stupid
Failing Superman–in a BIG Way
This video, which was created by educational consultant Marc-Andre Lalande, is so fabulous it deserves its own post. I'm posting it here for those of you who, like me, cried while watching Waiting for Superman (and not in a happy way). You will want to watch this thoughtful antidote to the "one-size-fits-all" thinking that permeates much… Continue reading Failing Superman–in a BIG Way
Engaged Chaos
I am so grateful to have an administrator who kicks ass and knows what engaged learning looks like. In all honesty, she's better at spotting it than I am. I say this because, just recently, if anyone else had walked into the classroom where I facilitate a literacy block each week, they would have probably… Continue reading Engaged Chaos
My So-Called Literacy Life 