Christmas came early this year. It came in February. I had pre-ordered my copy of Jennifer Serravallo’s The Writing Strategies Book and it arrived last week. What an incredible body of work for teachers and coaches to use in developing confident and skilled writers! Already this week, instructional coaches in our district have taken a …
Years ago, I learned one of the most valuable lessons of my entire career. I didn’t know the “single story” concept yet and it was long before Chimamanda Adichie’s brilliant TEDtalk, but what I did learn was that it is incredibly important to know as much as you can about your students’ lives outside of …
When I was a teenager, every Friday night without fail, my dad would watch the PBS news show, Washington Week in Review. I would sit sulking on the coach, hating my life and wishing for a humane end to my agony. I find myself in a similar situation these days. The past few years my …
Today’s blog post is authored by my friend, Jill Shelby. I met Jill earlier this year at our first instructional specialist meeting. There was an instant connection. Jill’s family and mine both experienced re-entry to America after living abroad. I’m so pleased and honored that Jill shared her thoughts here about our privilege and …
One of the things I’ve learned over the years when talking with teachers about students and comprehension instruction is that sometimes as proficient readers ourselves we don’t fully understand where to begin when working with our young readers. When you are a master at any given skill it’s sometimes difficult to identify the “first step”. …
We make a big deal in education about the importance of reflection. Teachers are admonished to take time to think about their instruction, or more importantly to reflect on student learning. It’s a powerful process to engage in methodically thinking through how to improve troubling issues that arise in the classroom. Teachers typically begin by …
When I taught kindergarten years ago my favorite time of the day was writing workshop. I loved modeling a simple lesson, sending students out to write on their own while I moved around the room conferring with as many young writers as time allowed before we closed our notebooks for the day. They were enthusiastic …
When have teachers ever been asked to do less? At the beginning of each school year, new initiatives are rolled out, multiple resources are prescribed, numerous trainings are scheduled, stacks of forms are introduced and teachers start out feeling crushed beneath the weight of it all. Never, I repeat never, are teachers asked to take …
Last February I started blogging weekly and in September a second weekly segment, That Thing You Do! was added. It’s a post by invitation where authors and educators share a strategy that teachers can put into practice in their professional lives. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to those who contributed this year. Thank …
I wrote here a few weeks ago about a poetry unit I was able to co-facilitate with a first year teacher. In that blog post I talked about how we approached teaching Mrs. B’s 3rd grade students to read and comprehend poetry. Only a few short weeks have passed, but I can not stop thinking …
