Remember when we were at home in sweatpants, fingers on the keyboard and mouse, eyes locked on our screens, instructing a virtual room of students? It would have been ideal if students’ digital hands were raising, smiles and laughter were spreading, breakout rooms were hopping, and learning was happening.  The reality, though, for many of … The post Tardies & Chronic Absenteeism: Fighting the Good Fight appeared first on Lindsay Ann Learning English Teacher Blog ..read more

We’ve all been there: It’s Monday morning. Students drift into the room, a fog floating behind their eyes as the early morning wake-up clouds their consciousness. We greet them at the door, proffering a powerful greeting, hoping to engage them. “Good morning!” we say. In return, we might get the nod, the hello, the brief glance from behind their … The post Open Ended Questions That Work appeared first on Lindsay Ann Learning English Teacher Blog ..read more

Indeed, the days-of-old are earmarked in my memory by sitting-and-getting, by memorizing-and-regurgitating. That was school. Find your desk, pay attention, learn (somehow) everything on the first try, and then take your test or write your essay. Those days are gone, though, and in many ways those practices are being replaced with project based learning in education. Remember the … The post Project Based Learning: Unlocking Creativity and Collaboration appeared first on Lindsay Ann Learning English Teacher Blog ..read more

Being white, growing up in America, having money for food, laughing with friends and family without the fear of violence, I was distant and separate from so many of the hardships and horrors of the world around me.  My suburb felt worlds-away from the city.  My desire for the newest toy while my old ones … The post Empathy and Understanding: How the TED Talk on the Danger of a Single Story Reshapes Perspectives appeared first on Lindsay Ann Learning English Teacher Blog ..read more

Teacher burnout. The struggle is real.  I have written and deleted this introduction at least 10 times. Why? Because it just sounds so cliché. I mean, if you’re a teacher, you’ve heard, thought, lived, breathed the causes of teacher burnout.  Do I really need to state what we all know?  We all know that most … The post 5 Strategies to Combat Teacher Burnout appeared first on Lindsay Ann Learning English Teacher Blog ..read more

I never thought I’d be a teacher meme…   Rewind to almost twenty years ago, me stepping into the classroom, me ready for the opportunities and challenges of teaching… Now, compare that to me today and all the teacher memes I live through moment-to-moment:  We have to wonder, then, what these teacher classroom memes say about … The post Analyzing Teacher Memes appeared first on Lindsay Ann Learning English Teacher Blog ..read more

Let me tell you a story about story elements… Once upon a time, there was a teacher who was tired of reading stories that take place once upon a time. This teacher, who loves students being creative, dreads reading through 75 student-written stories that have all the elements in literature – like conflict, plot, and characterization … The post Teaching Story Elements to Improve Storytelling appeared first on Lindsay Ann Learning English Teacher Blog ..read more

Before we became teachers, when we were young and had dreams aplenty, we probably thought of all the awesome things about teaching – changing lives, inspiring futures, sharing our love for learning. But we probably gave little thought to where we spend so much of our time and expend so much of our energy: on … The post Effective Classroom Management Strategies: Setting the Tone for Learning appeared first on Lindsay Ann Learning English Teacher Blog ..read more

Kids say the darndest things–often because their speech is littered with figurative language examples.  “I could eat 1,000 burgers I’m so hungry!”  “Your hair looks like a chicken sat on it!”  “You’re the worst parent ever!”  Lovely. Indeed, kids don’t need a figurative language list with figurative language types and examples to liven up their … The post Figurative Language Examples We Can All Learn From appeared first on Lindsay Ann Learning English Teacher Blog ..read more

One of the positive shifts that happened as a result of PARCC becoming a short-lived focus in my district and state was that attention shifted to paired text analysis of shorter texts. Even as Illinois shifted to IAR and parted ways with yet another educational acronym, the idea of quick-hit analysis with short texts stuck … The post 10 Song Analysis Lessons for Teachers appeared first on Lindsay Ann Learning English Teacher Blog ..read more