What exactly does “student-friendly language” mean? In my district, teachers are required to post learning objectives in student-friendly language. (Did that come from the Charlotte Danielson Framework? Probably. 🤨) In reality, that mainly meant adding the phrase “I can” in front of a standard and writing it on the board. I have to admit that […]
Teaching Novels vs. Teaching Standards
I hear so many teachers asking for help with teaching novels. I am starting [fill-in-the-blank with any title] next week and need ideas for how to make it engaging to my students! My student isn’t allowed to read [fill-in-the-blank] and I need an alternate text for her to read–and how do I even manage that?! Part […]
Decorating Your Middle School Classroom
Middle school students are such a unique group. One minute they act like a bunch of little kids, and the next day they are so grown up. But next week, who knows? They may be sweet children again, or they may be hormonal teens, or they may be both at the same time. Creating a […]
Setting Up Your Interactive Notebook
I fell in love with the idea of an interactive notebook the very first time I heard about it. Putting that strategy into practice in my middle school classroom was another story, though. After several false starts and lots of minor adjustments I finally found a process that worked for me and my students. I […]
