Helping you maximize your time outside the classroom
Let’s face it. Teaching argumentative writing is hard. Each year I teach it, I always know it’s going to be one of the most energy-taxing units of the year. The art of creating a well-crafted argument is challenging for most students–let’s be real, most people, young or not–and facilitating a whole class of teenagers through
Continue reading My Favorite Lesson Plan for Teaching Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning
The beginning of the school year is upon us, and with it, all the little management problems from last year that we’d like to improve this year. Today, I’d like to talk about a big one for me. That problem is: when and how should students sharpen their pencils? To a non-teacher, that question seems
This post is an excerpt from my online course, The Ultimate New Teacher Summer Workshop. The typical lesson plan template has a few basic things: learning objective, materials needed, opening, closing, and assessment. Following these templates, it’s no wonder that so many new teachers struggle through executing their first few lessons. The truth is: experienced
While most teachers imagine a summer full of planning, prepping, collaborating and decorating to prepare for each brand new group of students, that’s not always the case for hundreds of teachers. It’s January, and that means that that across the country (and the world) there are teachers marching into classrooms for the first time, tasked
Just like you have reasons that you don’t do certain things, reluctant writers have their own reasons for not writing. Personally, I do not sing in front of people. Reason? I had a friend tell me I was terrible when I was very young, and ever since I’ve been terrified of criticism about it.
You’ve probably got 80,130 things swirling around in your head about things you want to do before the school year starts. It’s such an exciting time!! I remember the summer before my first year teaching obsessing over EVERYTHING. What’s up, anxiety. I thought I needed to make my plans incredible and my classroom looking absolutely
Continue reading The Summer To-Do List for First Year Teachers
