Category: Reflections
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Rekindling the Joy of Reading during a Pandemic
At the time I am writing this, the one-year anniversary of March 13, 2020, is looming large upon me like this dark unknown specter. It’s almost like an unseen barrier that we are all holding our breath until we get across, because who knows what is on the other side? To say I don’t recognize…
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Lost But Now Found
On September 15, 2020, Dan Martin (a professor at Central Washington University) ironically tweeted that “Academia is reading a book & then forgetting that book ever existed. Regardless of what prompted this tweet, I’m guessing that most CRWP blog readers (myself included) would tend to disagree. Nevertheless, I have recently been writing a reading memoir,…
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Decision Fatigue: Part 2
In her first blog post in this series, Megan Kowalski talked about the power of using templates with her middle school students to help them build confidence as writers. Drawing from They Say / I Say by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, Megan taught her students first to use templates and then noticed over time…
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Decision Fatigue
I teach in an inner-city school and work with students who have a variety of disabilities including specific learning disabilities, autism, behavior disorders, and many other labels. My students are smart and capable, but they’re not always able to display these traits without some accommodations. Two years ago, I was assigned a caseload of 13…
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Standing Up for Students: One Middle School Teacher’s Urgent Plea against Standardized Testing during the COVID Pandemic
We have officially been in our “Stay at Home” order for about four weeks. In addition, Michigan schools will no longer meet face-to-face this year. During my time at home, I have been doing some processing and reflecting on education and where our education system is currently functioning, is going, and will be going after…