“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Programs like the Independent Project at Monument Mountain Regional High School inspire me to keep looking for ways to give my students as much control over their own learning as I can. In my 8th … Continue reading They need to learn to yearn
This was my very first blog post, written in 2011, in response to my growing frustrations and fears over NCLB. I had met and spoken with Stephen Krashen, who encouraged me to start blogging, to get my voice of experience out there for others to hear. Although our ongoing battles in education may not compare to the historic (and ongoing) struggles for civil rights, we … Continue reading Fighting for the dream, continued
Asking middle school students to write (and share) book recommendations isn’t new. It gives them the opportunity to write about literature they have enjoyed, be inspired to check out books that their peers have loved, and demonstrate their growing reading and writing skills for their teacher. But move those book recommendations to the students’ own blogs, and suddenly they are learning a whole hard drive’s … Continue reading Oh, the skillz they will learn!
If your students are feverishly writing novels as fast their little fingers can fly across the keyboards, anxious to meet their NaNoWriMo word goals by the end of November, you may be wondering how best to assess their work during this glorious month of literary abandon. Since it may be unrealistic for you to read the complete texts of their novels (I have 98 students … Continue reading Assessing your WriMos
Here it is, NaNoEve, and you’re too busy assembling your Halloween costume to think about your novel. Don’t let me scare you too much, but TOMORROW IS THE DAY YOU START WRITING YOUR NOVEL! BOO! Ah, fear not. It is not as scary as you might think. All you need to do is come up with an inciting incident (fancy writer talk for “the event … Continue reading #NaNoPrep: ready for Day 1, Page 1?
If your students are participating in NaNoWriMo (in T – 3 days), then they are probably chomping at the bit to start writing. There’s nothing like telling students they CAN’T write until a certain date to get them begging for permission to write! If they have created their characters, crafted their conflicts and plotted their plot, then they are probably more than ready to start … Continue reading #NaNoPrep – are your WriMos ready?
Today starts Digital Citizenship Week in the middle of Connected Educator Month, and thanks to tech-happy teachers all over the web, I am quite happily connected. Just a few minutes on the English Companion ning or Google+ or Pinterest or Twitter and I’m sure to find a wealth of ideas quite literally at my fingertips And with a nod to tradition, I still garner great classroom ideas from hard copy magazines that … Continue reading Who’s in charge here?
We teachers of young adolescents learn early on to grab our students’ gratitude when we can: their glee over a clever assignment, their pride in a hard-earned grade, their bashful “thanks” as they hand over a holiday gift probably bought and wrapped by a parent. It’s a rare treat indeed when our students communicate their gratitude to us in writing. Even better is when a … Continue reading A pro-choices classroom
2018 update: if you are interested in the details of this class, check out my latest article about it here. I’ve been teaching English language arts for over 20 years, and as much as I love it, I have always wanted to add some variety to my work load by teaching an elective class. I envisioned this class as a break from the deluge of … Continue reading What’s up in Digital Media (now Design Lab) class?
It all started with a Facebook post by a friend of mine: “Check out these customer reviews on Amazon! It’s like a whole new kind of writing!” The Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer has generated nearly 3,000 customer reviews that mock the absurdity of this unnecessary product. Ranging from “What can I say about the 571B Banana Slicer that hasn’t already been said about the wheel, … Continue reading Evolution of a lesson
Laura Bradley 