Tag: reflections
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The Power of Taking a Risk
I shared my writing with my students and it was really powerful. I know what you’re thinking: Of course it was. We all know this. We know that we should write with our students, model for our students, share with our students. But, I know that we don’t. Or, at least, I know that I…
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Spring Break: The Teacher’s Big Sigh
As 3:00 pm arrives on the final day before commencement of Spring Break, one can hear a collective big sigh from teachers in classrooms across the country. For some teachers, that sigh precedes the gasp before dashing out the door to pack and escape, for a week or so, from the career that provides so…
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Growing as a Writer and as a Teacher of Writing
“I think you should see if the Writing Project is doing a Summer Institute this year,” my mentor teacher, Chanda Stafford, said to me during one of our many meetings last year. As a first year teacher, I had no idea what that meant, so I nodded, and absent-mindedly made a note of it on…
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In Defense of Audio Books
My students didn’t consider themselves readers until I began using audiobooks. Before audiobooks, nothing was more difficult for my students than sitting down with a book and trying to make the letters into words and the words into sentences that meant something to them. All of my students have disabilities and many are bilingual (but…
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Naming the Elephant: An Announcement
In celebration of their union, “Close Reading” and “Critical Reading” will now be addressed as simply “Critical Reading.” Please update your planbook accordingly. In my first post of this series, I discussed and defined a problem that I see: that my colleagues and I are all using the term “Close Reading,” but we all have…
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From Teacher to Digital Facilitator
“Your room has a really different feel to it this year,” my principal said the other day with a smile on her face. In reflecting upon that statement, I have to admit that it’s true. My digital journey started about four years ago when I converted a classroom closet into a makeshift “studio,” brought…