It sure has been a rough few months! Some of you have just wrapped up the school year and others will be doing so within the next week or so. You may be experiencing a whole range of emotions: relief that you survived teaching during a pandemic, disappointment or grief over the end-of-year rituals and …
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General
How to Plan NOW for Summer Inspiration
I realize that professional reading isn’t the first thing on your mind right now. But, in the event that you want to do some professional reading and be inspired over the summer, NOW is the time to order the titles on your wishlist! Why? Because Heinemann is offering a 40% discount and free shipping through …
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Explicit Teaching From a Distance
As we embark on distance learning in our digital/virtual classrooms, it is now more important than ever to be sure our teaching is clear and concise. Distance learning needs to be more than a place where we post assignments, activities, and questions to respond to. We have the responsibility to teach while we are socially …
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Teacher Tribute: Patricia Kucharski
Is this virtual teaching thing making you exhausted? Need a good laugh? Stick with me for this tribute… Today we celebrate first-grade teacher, Patricia Kucharski. I adore so much about this teacher, but the thing I love the most about her is her willingness to put herself out there. I recently brought a group of …
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Read It for Me
Here we are, a month into the COVID-19 quarantine. When the shelter in place recommendation-turned-ordinance became a reality, I decided I should make the best of it and tackle some of those projects I never have time to do during the school year. I also decided to take time to relax with some good books. …
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Spotlight on Professional Resources: Kids’ Poems
When I was first introduced to the idea of teaching free verse poetry to elementary students, I felt overwhelmed. Teaching form poetry such as haiku, cinquains, rhyming couplets, limericks, etc. felt safe–there was a formula that was easy to follow. But free verse poetry felt wide open and like it had no guiding principles. Then I …
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Breaking Skills Into Strategies
The last several posts have been devoted to unpacking skills and strategies. I have used Jennifer Serravallo’s definition of strategy: “step-by-step how tos that lead toward skilled performance”. When I think about strategies, the question that always pops into my mind is, “How can I break this down?” If a learner is struggling with a skill, …
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How Long Does It Take for a Strategy to Give Way to a Skill?
In my last two posts I wrote about the difference between telling and teaching and the distinction between a skill and a strategy. I shared a story about how author Jennifer Serravallo learned to draw people by using the strategy of lightly drawing shapes and then adding the details of the person. This strategy gave …
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