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Practical, self-paced professional development and college credit
for secondary ELA and general education teachers
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LGBTQ+ Literature: Opening Up Language
About five years ago, I read an article by a high school student about the way to create a LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum...
Apr 29, 20213 min read
393 views

Real World Interviews and Conversations
I start the school year with a conversation about the value of literature, so I like to end by giving my students the opportunity to bring w
Apr 22, 20213 min read
211 views

7 Methods to Finish the Year Strong
If you have been teaching remote or hybrid you know that students don’t turn in as much work as they usually do. You’re not alone ...
Apr 14, 20214 min read
334 views

One Year Later: Reflection
Sometimes I like to complete the essay that I assign my students. In this case, I assigned a reflection on the last year. I also wanted...
Apr 8, 20214 min read
143 views

The Magic of Storytelling: Real and Fictional
I recently listened to the podcast “The Story of Your Life” on Hidden Brain by Shankar Vedantam. I felt like I was listening to ...
Mar 29, 20212 min read
216 views

5 Project Ideas for the Spring
The end of the year will be here soon and like any teacher right now, especially senior teachers, I’m worried about ...
Mar 23, 20213 min read
310 views

Outdoor Reflection: 1 Year Later
I recently saw Adam Duritz from the Counting Crows perform “A Long December” on Jimmy Kimmel and it got me thinking about last year. When...
Mar 17, 20212 min read
94 views

Meaning-Making in the Secondary ELA Classroom
It’s easy to say to our students that literature should be meaningful. It’s easy to ask students … what does that line mean?
Mar 12, 20217 min read
212 views

The Case for Content-Specific Professional Development
After some years teaching, I realized that my love of learning about literature turned into a love of learning about how to teach literature
Mar 4, 20213 min read
668 views

Magical Realism: Interpretation and Creation
Magical realism goes beyond the place that a metaphor takes us. It goes beyond the realm of comparison.
Feb 19, 20213 min read
250 views

Why Do You Want to Be a Teacher?
Introduction to Teaching the Magic of Literature: Using Imagination to Shape the Future It was one of the simplest, yet most complicated...
Feb 14, 20213 min read
289 views

Teaching Very Short Stories or Flash Fiction
If your students struggle to finish a novel, this unit is perfect for you. The stories are from Short: An International Anthology of...
Feb 13, 20213 min read
284 views

Screencast: The New Essay?
It’s pretty typical for a teacher, or anyone for that matter, to feel like they are swimming in new tech tools. But this year, it’s...
Feb 8, 20213 min read
246 views

Teaching Media Literacy
A lot of what we deal with in English language arts relates to strangers, people we don’t know. We read novels and non-fiction to immerse...
Jan 31, 20214 min read
115 views

What Makes a Superteacher?
This has been a challenging year for any teacher. Even during a regular year, teachers work hard to meet the many demands and...
Jan 19, 20214 min read
315 views

Teaching the Novel in a Remote or Hybrid Classroom
I’m trying to get as creative as possible when it comes to being flexible with students. After finishing a few units ...
Jan 11, 20213 min read
629 views

10 Creative Projects for Remote Learning
My colleagues and I recently had a conversation about the rest of the year and what we could do to keep our students engaged....
Dec 23, 20206 min read
229 views

Politics in the Classroom: 5 Goals
Even now, an open and honest conversation about politics can quickly turn ugly. Sometimes the conversation doesn’t happen at all because ...
Dec 15, 20203 min read
150 views

50 Songs to Start Class
This year, the start of class is that awkward time when we’re saying hello and waiting for everyone to virtually trickle in. When...
Dec 11, 20203 min read
1,571 views

The Teaching of Writing: Feedback and Revisions
Tomorrow I’ll give virtual feedback on an essay my students wrote on a poem. I usually provide feedback right before I assign the next...
Dec 10, 20202 min read
507 views

Rethinking Research
I attended the virtual NCTE conference this past Friday and it got me thinking about the research paper, or really, rethinking it. Part...
Dec 7, 20202 min read
365 views

Self-Reflection and Metacognition
At the end of each quarter, I like to give my students the opportunity to reflect on what they’ve done and what they will do next.
Nov 29, 20202 min read
171 views

Writing For and In the Present
I recently came across Several short sentences about writing, a book by Verlyn Klinkenborg that I read a few years ago. It’s a must read...
Nov 18, 20203 min read
109 views

Sketchnoting in the Digital Age
Last week, I told my students to create sketchnotes on the poems we studied in class. I didn't really specify what I was looking for, I...
Nov 10, 20202 min read
249 views
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