Jul 19
Imagine this: Your student is mindlessly scrolling Twitter, when suddenly your Tweet comes up reminding them of the test tomorrow. Now, your student is being productive and using the Quizlet link you included in the Tweet to study for the test. This is the power of Twitter in the classroom. Why Twitter? Students love social …
Apr 28
A quick extra step to put QR codes on your worksheets will save you so much time in the long run! I started putting addresses or short urls to websites I needed students to visit on my worksheets, but many students struggled entering them. They would leave out a letter or symbol which would then …
Jan 13
Want to try podcasts in the classroom? I can help! This post lists out my favorite podcasts along with what standards and texts to pair them with. Many teachers prefer seasonal activities so I’m going to break this up by month. However, any of these can be used at any time throughout the year. *UPDATE! …
Sep 06
For real. No cheesy music, no bad acting, and no trick endings where everyone is okay and it was all just a big misunderstanding. Seriously, your students are going to love these and they have just the right amount of horror while still being appropriate for school. Myths and Legends I can’t say enough about …
Jul 01
Organizing your classroom library is no easy task. For example, how would you label The Book Thief? Fantasy, because the narrator is Death, or historical fiction because of the time period? If you have a section for movies that are books, it may end up there. And that’s one book. Many classroom libraries have hundreds of books; …
Apr 07
Help your students practice clear, concise, and organized writing by creating police reports. This real-world writing prompt helps keep students engaged and gives a specific focus to their writing. I often use this technique to have students summarize a character’s death or an important scene in a novel. Start with a Terrible Example I begin …
Jan 17
Breakouts are huge right now, but they are also a bit intimidating for teachers to create and implement. Just programing the locks for each kit has caused me anxiety. How would I find the time and patience to set all the locks? How would I reset everything in time for the next class? A digital …
Jan 09
Fake receipts are a great way to change up your worksheets and increase engagement. I mostly use them for creative writing and comprehension assessments, but I’m sure you’ll come up with a few ideas as well. 1. Reading Comprehension Create fake receipts for various characters and have the students guess which character they belong to. …
Oct 26
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is more relevant than ever right now. Here’s four reasons to dust it off and get it back into students’ hands this year. 1. Zaphod Beeblebrox is Donald Trump Regardless of how you feel politically, we can all agree Trump sometimes acts sporadically. I Just finished reading this with …
Oct 22
According to Webb’s Depth of Knowledge, Level 3: Strategic Thinking involves problems with multiple valid answers. Severity charts are the perfect way to do just that. Students need to take into account multiple events, details, points of view, etc. in order to determine and validate their answer. Check out some of my examples below. Character Morality …
