There are endless aspects of teaching that cause me stress and anxiety over the course of the school year. Managing each student’s needs, developing positive relationships with parents, clubs, meetings, grading, duties, extra demands from admin… you know, all those things that pop up during the school year that are mostly beyond my control. I realized that I needed to really focus my energy on the things I CAN control, which is why I started backward planning my entire school year. Why I Backward Plan So Far In Advance What I’ve learned from backward planning is that it’s counterintuitive, but if I have a detailed outlined plan for each quarter…
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10 First Day of School Activities that aren’t Cheesy
I’m going to be honest, I hate first day of school activities. I hate icebreakers, I hate choosing a starburst and sharing facts about myself. I hate talking to strangers to figure out what squares we have in common on a bingo board. In my opinion, the classic icebreaker or introduction activities we’ve been subjected to for years are the worst part of meetings, professional development, and back to school. I’m an introvert, and I’d rather get my teeth pulled than do forced mingling with strangers. For students, these activities are so often too big of a social risk on the first day, and they don’t actually help kids get…
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The Truth About Summer Reading
My Experience with Summer Reading as a Student I’ll never forget my first summer reading assignment. Up until my junior year of high school, I went to school online. I begged my parents to let me go to a real school, and I got enrolled at a local charter school. Then I received my summer reading assignment. Now, I have always loved reading. Ever since I figured out how to do it, I would read anything that stood still long enough. During the summer when my brother was outside riding his bike or playing basketball I would always be up in my room, curled up in a big armchair, reading…
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10 end of year activities for any classroom
It’s been one crazy year, and I’m exhausted. We’ve finally made it to the end, and my instinct is to play a movie for the last week of class next week. BUT, kids have worked hard, and I don’t want to just tap out. I’m sure many of you are in the same boat, so I made a list of activities that are fun and creative while still being moderately standards- related. Some of these require some prep, but others none at all! I hope this list helps your students ( and you!) relax and make memories as the school year. 1. Write a Thank You Note This activity can…
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How To Prepare for Equitable Remote Learning
On Friday night, my school board voted to go virtual for a week. YIKES! We teachers have only a few days to plan ( and, yes, those days are outside of working hours). Your school may have gone virtual already, and we all may be facing the possibility of off/ on remote this year. I wanted to share how I prepare my units for equitable remote learning, because with a little planning and preparation you can ease a lot of the burden from yourself if and when this happens at your school. This is also important as we are seeing upticks in the number of absent students who are quarantining…
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6 Myths about Rigor: It’s Not What You Think
“Rigor” is one of those education buzzwords that we hear all the time as teachers. We’re all expected to provide rigorous opportunities without a common definition of the term. Often, as I speak with educators and administrators about rigor, I notice a lot of inconsistencies and misconceptions in describing what rigor actually means. I’m here to debunk the myths about rigor and provide a clear definition as a starting point to creating truly rigorous classroom environments. Rigor is, in essence, creating an academically, intellectually, and personally challenging learning environment ( Williamson & Blackburn, 2013). It means not only providing rich, complex tasks that encourage curiosity, risk-taking, and high engagement, but…
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How To: Reset Classroom Expectations After a Break
This week, I welcome guest blogger Chaia from All Things Exceptional to the Letters and Ink Blog! She’s an awesome educator who has offered to share her expertise on how to reset classroom expectations because you KNOW our kiddos will need it after winter break! If you need some help setting expectations, be sure to check out this post: 5 Things To Do Before You Teach Content This Year. Here’s why and how to reset classroom expectations after a break: Routines and procedures need to be reexamined regularly to ensure that they are still beneficial to your classroom environment and students. Right before and sometimes during breaks, I reexamine ALL…
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It’s Not a Secret: Grading Homework is Harming Our Students
Colleagues, parents, and students are usually taken aback by the fact that I don’t assign grades for formative tasks like classwork or homework. There are so many reasons that assigning a letter or percentage grade is inequitable, unjust, and a poor practice. If you’re curious about more strategies for equitable grading, I encourage you to check out Grading for Equity, by Joe Feldman. This book started it all for me! Let me tell you why I stopped grading homework and what I do instead! First, I call it homework, but that can mean different things for different people! What I mean by “homework” is any classwork that is designed to…
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It’s Time to Get Rid of Extra Credit
When I first started teaching, I offered all kinds of random extra credit. If students brought me supplies, like tissues. If students saw a movie related to the novel we were studying in class. If students finished their work early, and I had them do random tasks around the classroom. I also had enrichment tasks ready for extra credit too. It took me a long time to realize that my extra credit opportunities were inequitable, and let me to get rid of extra credit. Let me explain why. WHY DO STUDENTS ASK FOR EXTRA CREDIT? What I came to realize, though was that the opportunities I was giving were unfair…
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Stop Penalizing Late Work in the Classroom
Anytime I mention the fact that stopped penalizing late work in my classroom, I can FEEL the judgment coming from other teachers, especially old-school ones. Even if they don’t verbally criticize my policy, their eyes say it all. “How do you expect kids to learn about deadlines?” “The real world doesn’t let you turn things in whenever you want!” “Back in my day….” I get it, I do… after all, I am a product of a school system that penalized late work. But – listen. In the real world, you can almost always get an extension on your taxes You can be 5 minutes late for a meeting Real adult…
