Do you dread teaching grammar?  Do your students struggle to understand it?  If so, let me help you make it engaging and meaningful for your students.   For years, educators have debated over how to teach grammar.  Should it be taught in context? As a stand-alone lesson? Or maybe not at all? In my 24 years of teaching students from grades 6 - 12, I’ve concluded that a strong understanding of grammar improves the reading and writing abilities of students. It also helps my high school juniors succeed on standardized assessments such as the SAT and Accuplacer.  ..read more

Oh, no! It’s back to school, and time for teachers to greet their new students, create routines, complete team builders, and make their classrooms welcoming. But with the pressure to cover extensive curriculum in a short amount of time, secondary teachers may feel tempted to skip the process of creating a positive classroom culture and delve straight into their content. It’s a mistake, however, to ignore the importance of building safe and inclusive classrooms that encourage students to participate actively in their learning. This is more important than ever since students, educators, and ..read more

Did you know that high school students adore trashketball? Even though the game is played more often in middle school, it’s one of the best activities that I have in my teacher toolbox. In fact, I have never had a class of students that didn’t enjoy it. They like the games because trashketball makes learning concepts that aren’t usually exciting – such as grammar- more engaging and memorable. Sadly, since the start of the pandemic, I have not been able to play traditional trashketball in my classroom. Although I encouraged my students to play on their own at home last spring, I wanted a way ..read more

Although I’ve taught on a block schedule for 17 years and have many strategies in my teacher toolbox, the pandemic has made me rethink how I teach during long class periods.  Using my professional knowledge, teacher intuition, formative assessment, and reflection on successes and failures, I’ve adapted my teaching for hybrid and online learning.  In the process, I’ve developed new approaches until we get back to normal (or at least something closer to normal).  Read on to learn about them. Keep Zoom Sessions Short Just as I wouldn’t lecture for long blocks of time, I don’t zoo ..read more

When I started teaching, I worked at a school with a 7-period day and 46-minute class periods. I was accustomed to this schedule but then I started a new teaching position where the school system used a 90-minute block schedule. At first, I was afraid that 90 minutes would be horrible: How would I fill that much time with instruction? How would I keep students engaged? Over many years, I’ve learned to love this schedule. Recently, many schools have moved to a block schedule as a strategy to make classes smaller because of the pandemic. I’ve seen many teachers post on social media and lament ..read more

We all have difficult times in our lives, but 2020 has been hard for everyone. This year has been filled with challenges such as Covid-19, social unrest and protest, a troublesome economy, and more. No doubt, our students are struggling emotionally because of this turmoil. Classroom teachers should always be mindful of the impact of emotion on learning but with the current situation in America and around the world, it’s more important to support students’ emotional and mental health than ever. As all teachers know, our work reaches far beyond our curriculums because we are nurturers, a ..read more

Do you know the key to successful remote teaching?  After doing it online for four weeks, I can’t say I’m expert, but I have reflected on what I've learned. I have ideas to share with you, which I hope will make your online teaching easier!1. Build community.  Warm Up Discussions Just as we need to make our classroom environments safe, comfortable places to learn at the beginning of the school year, we need to take similar steps to ensure that atmosphere online. I’ve done this by including daily warm ups for informal chats. For instance, I’ve had my students post photos of pets (or ..read more

Women’s History Month is a great time to acknowledge the accomplishments of women and discuss the many obstacles they’ve overcome, along with the many issues girls and women still face in modern society. However, teachers with packed curricula may find it challenging to fit in additional lessons. That’s why I’ve provided simple strategies that help teachers incorporate female role-models and women’s issues into their current lessons and throughout the school year – not just during Women’s History Month.1. Use carefully crafted questions.  Since many curriculums use similar texts, it may ..read more

Student Teaching…it’s an essential element of every college teaching program and an important experience for both the mentor teacher and the pre-service teacher!  For student teachers, it provides the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in the classroom and gain knowledge of the realities of the life of a classroom teacher. For mentor teachers, it provides opportunities to reflect on your teaching practice, grow professionally, and get trained assistance in your classes.  Have you been asked to mentor a student teacher? Mentoring a student teacher is not always popular with experien ..read more

How do teachers get students to talk about their reading in a meaningful way? As a high school English teacher, I have often been reluctant to let students lead their own book discussions. When I have tried book discussions in the past, students focused on the literal meanings of their books, usually recalling plot events; however, I wanted them to use critical thinking and to make inferences and relevant connections with their reading. Over the years, I’ve experimented with strategies that have made me more comfortable turning the discussion over to my students (and that make them mor ..read more