I’m a bit late to #cyberPD because I’ve been traveling, but I did want to catch up and participate, even if I’m late. #CyberPD is one of my favorite professional development opportunities each year–a virtual summer book study with many of the teacher-bloggers I learn the most from. I was excited when Sara K. Ahmed’s…
I just spent a wonderful week at the Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference. I’m thinking about a lot of things from the conference, but today I want to think about writing community. I always think of community as something that is built and developed over time, but in my workshop, led by creative nonfiction author Alison…
I wasn’t sure I really needed to read Passionate Readers: The Art of Reaching and Engaging Every Child. After all, I have followed Pernille Ripp’s excellent teaching blog for years and felt like I had a good understanding of her work with readers. But even if you know Pernille’s work, Passionate Readers is still a great…
#CyberPD is one of my favorite online summer professional development opportunities. A lively community of literacy teachers led by Cathy at Reflect & Refine and Michelle at Literacy Learning Zone share their summer PD book stacks. One of the titles that shows up on multiple lists is selected, and participants connect via Twitter, blogs, and Google…
How do you fit it all in? The short answer is, you don’t. Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle take their readers through 180 days of teaching high school English and share the tough decisions they make about curriculum and lesson plan design. Here are 9 things you need to know about 180 Days: It is…
Most of what I finished last week I’ve already written about in a #MustReadin2018 update post, so today, I will focus on just one book in more depth, Kylene Beers and Bob Probst’s Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters. 9 Things I Loved About Disrupting Thinking–and One Thing I Didn’t Reading it is like…
My first session of the final day of NCTE was Clear Eyes, Full Heart, Can’t Lose: Helping Students Craft a Clear and Heartfelt Vision for Their Learning with Kate Roberts and Maggie Beattie Roberts. It was hard to say no to a presentation titled after Friday Night Lights (Coach Taylor!), but the real inspiration to…
I had to be on a conference call in the morning, and I missed the first two sessions of the day–but my pre-service teachers took amazing notes for me to learn from later. AND I had the treat at the Slicer dinner of seeing LeeAnn Spillane’s absolutely gorgeous sketchnotes. (Read more about her beautiful notebooks…
Every year at NCTE, I look forward to the moment when The Paper Graders’ daily learning reflection pops up in my feed. It’s such a powerful way to capture and keep learning. Every year, I want to write my own, and every year I make excuses for how tired I am at the end of…
Yesterday, I got a text from one of my pre-service teachers who will be attending NCTE with me next week: “How in the world are we supposed to pick sessions?! I’m currently signed up to attend 26 sessions from 9:30-12:15 on Friday according to my app. Whoops!” I think all of us who have been…
the dirigible plum 