It was a lovely afternoon in Parma, Michigan. Clear skies guided our walk from Western High School’s gym where we’d just listened to Meg Medina, Pernille Ripp, Chad Everett, Sara Ahmed, and Donalyn Miller give their seven-minute Nerd Talks, each a call-to-action. We carried their …
I have just returned from the first Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult literature at UNLV (#yasummit2018, Steve Bickmore). In this unique professional development experience, authors, researchers, teachers, librarians, and school administrators came together for three days to discuss how we can make …
This is where I will share information from today’s session at the #yasummit2018. I will add more information after the session as I hope we will develop some resources together. Survey Justifying individual choices in reading: Penny Kittle’s for high school and Pernille Ripp’s middle school …
Kwame Alexander’s The Crossover and Booked have been popular in my junior high classroom the past couple of years, which got me reading more verse novels and searching for others to recommended to students. This school year, I decided we would uncover just what is …
Around year ten in teaching, I decided to take my first early morning run of the summer on the last day of teaching. I am not sure why — maybe I did it unintentionally the first time and craved it subsequent years for its physical …
Our students walked through the door of our classroom 174 days this year. The door has never been propped open. That would be against fire code. The door is always locked to make lockdown and fire drills more efficient. The magnetic strip in the door …
View post to subscribe to site newsletter.
“We have just ten minutes before the music assembly, so we can get started on our final portfolio. In the past, the audience for these portfolios has been your parents, but this time it is…” I say waiting for some sign of life. “You?” one …
“So the speaker is saying that she wishes her mother would have left her courage behind instead of her brooch. Can you relate this poem to another poem or story?” says Jonathan. “Yes, Andy*?” “This reminds me of a movie, Guardians of the Galaxy.” “What …
Monday night I am going to the retirement dinner of the woman who was my student teaching field instructor: Kate Manski. She was the first person to bear witness to my practice as a teacher in 2003. A couple years ago, she sat in my …
I am a resistor of the “countdown,” as in counting down the days until the end of school. I am anxious as nearly 600 other educators to dive into Penny Kittle and Kelly Gallagher’s 180 Days and get the story for my next novel that is …