I’m going to say something that is not being said enough: The pandemic did not create problems in education. It forced us to recognize and stop ignoring the ones that were already there. Before, there was no money to waste on 1:1 technology. Suddenly, students had access to wifi and laptops. Before, students had to sit in a chair for each class from 7-3. Suddenly, we could give independent, asynchronous options. The list goes on. Although this year of teaching has easily been the longest and most exhausting year of my career, I realize that in a lot of ways it has been a blessing, and not just because my…
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How I Declutter My Classroom!
Spring Cleaning for Teachers Series – Part 3 Click here for Parts 1 and 2 of this Series. Every year as my teaching duties start winding down, I begin the therapeutic process of decluttering all of the printed paper I have collected throughout the year. As a teacher, I feel like this is SO HARD. I always think to myself, “What if I need these 7 copies next year?” I don’t believe “Just in Case” is a good enough argument for cluttering up your classroom with a ton of paper. Here’s why: Cluttered classrooms are almost NEVER tidy, even if you think they are. This sends a message to EVERYONE…
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How to Organize Your Digital Files
Spring Cleaning for Teachers Series – Part 2 My favorite work avoidance tactic is cleaning, organizing, and decluttering the spaces in which I live and work. I imagine there are a lot of us out there with massively unorganized Google Drives, especially with the state of hybrid and remote teaching this year. In this part of the Spring Cleaning for Teachers series, I want to share with you my best tips for creating and maintaining a well organized digital filing system. Today, I will walk you my tips to organize digital files so you can set yourself up for success for next school year! Are you ready for a little…
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My 5 Favorite Classroom Tech Tools
I had to change my teaching to make it engaging for both remote and in- person students. These are the 5 classroom tech tools that I use daily.
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ELA Strategies I Love: Hexagonal Thinking
Have you ever heard of or seen a new teaching strategy from a coworker and said, “I have to try that TOMORROW!”? That was me last week when I heard about Hexagonal Thinking from the Brave New Teaching Podcast. It just SOUNDS cool. I immediately paused my podcast, put down my vacuum ( because who doesn’t listen to podcasts while they’re cleaning? It’s a thing, I swear), and ran to my computer. I googled “Hexagonal Thinking” and found Betsy Potash’s incredibly innovative strategy for critical thinking on her Spark Creativity blog. I was immediately obsessed and worked it into my Hamlet lesson for the next week. Here’s how the Hexagonal…
