The moment that I walked into the Story Shop I knew it was going to be a magical day. In fact, it took a lot of magic (or maybe just hard work, but we’ll call it magic) just to get me to that moment in the first place. It took a chance meeting of two ELA teachers some 700 miles apart in an ...
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How to Use the Getty Unshuttered App in Your Classroom
I'm always looking for new ways to bring perspective-taking activities into my classroom, especially those that integrate new tech. Cue, Getty Unshuttered. I got the idea to incorporate photography into my creative writing class when I was reminiscing with my class about my favorite high school ...
8 Ideas to Make Digital Grading Quick and Easy
Digital resources have transformed the way my students learn, interact, and create in our physical classroom. On our end, we create engaging multimedia lessons, share them with ease through our digital classroom, and then...we collect hundreds of assignments that stare at us from their digital ...
How to Makeover Book Reports with Creative Project Based Learning
The book report project is a classic summative assessment to measure students' understanding of their assigned reading. While the book report has good intentions and certainly can be a good stepping stone for beginning students, book reports tend only to measure basic thinking skills. In fact, ...
5 Ways to Encourage High Schoolers to Fall in Love With Reading
For the past three years, I have been researching ways to help my high school students fall in love with reading. I read books and journal articles, talked to expert teachers, and field tested strategies. I made progress, but I didn't exactly see hearts aglow when I mentioned the word reading. Then, ...
Bellringers and Exit Tickets for Secondary Classroom Management
Routines help us accomplish our goals. Usually around this time of the year, we often start new routines with the hope of making good on our New Year’s Resolutions. This year, I’m resolving to start and revamp two of the most significant classroom routines: bellringers and exit tickets. I’ve been ...
