2017 | Mentoring in the Middle
This is a great time for teachers in the world of literature and narrative nonfiction.  There are so many good books to choose from!  ...
Take advantage of the Cyber sale Monday and Tuesday to save 20% off all of my products, and many of those in other stores, as well.  Use...
Students are smarter than we think.  They know us. Better than we think they do. In the past few weeks, I've had conversations wit...
Learning how to use clues to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words seems like it should be pretty easy.  I mean, authors often provi...
When you open some books, you just read and read.  Some books, you put down.  And for others, you grab a notebook and start jotting down sen...
Yes, yes, oh dear heavens, yes!  And not just because I'm old.  But because, in our interest to get kids writing about interesting thi...
One of the first products I created was this novel study.  Oh, boy, did it need an update!  With a lot more reading comprehension skills a...
Late last spring, I read the first Michael Vey book, The Prisoner of Cell 25  to one of my classes.  This Science Fiction series never f...
Way, way, way back in the day when I was in first grade, we switched seats one day and I was placed next to Michael.  Michael had polio, ...
What if students decided where the furniture should go in your room?  Could you give up control and let them decide?  Come along for a rid...
It's the first day of school in my district!  I thought this quote was a good reminder that it's usually the "little stuff...
When students explain why they don't like historical fiction, they usually say something like, "It doesn't grab me in the...
Sometimes, in this country, I feel like a stranger in a strange land. I can usually wrap my head around the thinking of people whose v...
Have you ever read a book where you marveled about how the author came up with the ideas?  I admit, I do that pretty often, but nothing l...
There have been a number of Facebook posts recently from teachers moving from primary grades to sixth grade.  One of their big concerns ...
At last year's TpT conference, I  became sadly aware that my presence on social media was pretty nonexistent.  When I got home, I dove...