I became extremely passionate about the value of Advanced Placement courses when I started college English courses at a local university. I realized how well my high school AP English courses positioned students to succeed in college. Of course, the academic goals align since AP is designed to be an ...
Blog
6 Ways to Engage Students When You Teach Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible”
Teaching The Crucible is absolutely one of my favorite units of the year. I usually prefer choice reading units to whole class units; however, as a play that can be read, acted out, and watched, The Crucible works really well as a whole class work. What I really love about teaching this play is that ...
Teacher Professional Development for Tomorrow
In the past 18 months, education has changed drastically. Over the span of a few weeks, teachers all across the United States adapted and evolved to ever-changing learning environments. In our small rural school district in western Pennsylvania, for example, school closures in the ...
5 Strategies To Teach Students How To Write Powerful Personal Narrative Essays
When it came time for me to write a personal narrative essay for my college applications, I instinctively went to a five paragraph essay format. Naturally, this is the format (or a variation of it) I learned in my English classes in high school, and I was good at it. However, something felt ...
4 Ways To Engage High School Students When Teaching Beowulf
Over the years, I’ve come to realize just how much I love wonder tales. And, apparently, I’m not alone. Game of Thrones, Outlander, and Bridgerton are just a few of the many famous book series turned television series that are/were wildly popular. So, when it came time to teach a unit on Beowulf to ...
5 Reasons Keeping the Wonder Is an Important Teacher Mission
Last week, my co-authors, Ashley Bible, Abby Gross, Staci Lamb, and I were invited as guests on the Brave New Teaching podcast with our friends, Marie Morris and Amanda Cardenas to talk about our bestselling book, Keeping the Wonder: An Educator’s Guide to Magical, Engaging, and Joyful ...
