Your bank wants you to go paperless. You child's report card is paperless. Retailers want to email you receipts rather than printing them at the register. Your students want to use their mobile devices for everything. So what about your classroom? How are you managing your teaching lessons? ...
Blog
How to Use Book Snaps to Engage Your Students
Book Snaps are an interactive and engaging activity for ANY book! The Book Snap is comprised of a snap (a picture) that represents the work and a caption (a quotation from the work). They are perfect for introducing a snapshot of a book during a choice reading unit, like my Literary Lenses Novel ...
How to Create a Choice Reading Unit for High Schoolers
As a 3rd year teacher, I had to teach As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, a book I never read up to that point. Plain and simple, I hated that book. It was such a struggle to teach a book that I could barely force myself to pick up. As much as I hated it, it was a pivotal learning experience ...
8 Strategies for Successful Test Prep in the ELA Classroom
Is your test prep game in need of a rebound? Sure, March Madness is starting this week, but for us teachers, it's testing season. With standardized state assessments and AP exams right around the corner, I worked on my game plan for test prep, and I'm sharing it today. 1. Escape Room Review My ...
How To Wow Your Students with QR Code Word Walls
I've tried so many ways to teach literary terms. I'm up for anything that doesn't involve me standing in front of the room dictating the definitions to a room of unengaged students. Some of the ideas worked and others not so much. Thankfully, we finally found a winner! Our QR Code Word Wall is a ...
Hosting a Panel Discussion in Your Secondary Classroom
One Friday night, I was watching Real-Time with Bill Maher, a political show that brings together people from all political views to discuss topics of the day in a panel format. I suddenly had a vision of my classroom with my students as the expert panelists and the quick-fingered audience ...
