TL;DR: Poetry offers students an access point into language. Spoken and written word have the power to foster conversation, liberation, and increase student voice. Poetry instruction that is multimodal (spoken word, video, and audio) increases engagement and can be a great way to delve into social justice topics in the classroom. It’s OK to just celebrate poetry without feeling intimidated … Read More
Engage Students with Magic Glasses & Table Dancing
TL;DR: Reimagine your lessons to make them more engaging for students. Some ways to engage students with your lessons include magic glasses and table dancing. Other ways to increase engagement in your lessons include finding ways to infuse movement, friendly competition, student conversations, and sometimes a little whimsy. Bueller? Bueller? Bueller…anyone? Anyone? Are you teaching to an ‘empty’ room? If … Read More
3 Tips for High Quality Student Conferences
TL;DR: Make student conferences a part of your unit arc. Give high quality feedback outside of your conferences. Invite students to lead and give them ownership in conversations about their grade. These tips can support the regularity, efficiency and effectiveness, and student ownership of conferences. For the last half of my teaching career, weekly student conferencing has been a staple … Read More
Teach Resilience.
TL;DR: Sometimes there will be a cheering squad behind you and other times there isn’t. When things get tough, resilience is key to getting through. Intentional discomfort is at the top of the hierarchy of resilience. Mindful moments can help us get through situations of intentional discomfort that create resilience. My 2021 WORD continues to be resilience! Why teach resilience? … Read More
Blended Learning: My Fear for the Future
TL;DR: It is important that educators don’t mistake the model of learning in the past year as true blended learning. When blended learning is implemented properly, educator stress levels will decrease and student success levels will increase. I began teaching with a blended learning approach before anybody really knew what it was. I had always been intrigued by flipping my … Read More