Impact: the strong effect or influence that something has on a situation or person As educators we are always being asked about the impact we are making in our schools and with our students. This is an important question because we have such a significant impact on both the school environment and the student experience. …
People are always saying, “I wish I could be a fly on the wall in THAT room!” Well, today you get to be the fly. Imagine you are buzzing down the hallway in a local school. You fly into a classroom on the left with the door open. Classroom #1: You rest on the white …
The novel has been selected and the course has been charted on the calendar. Now it’s time to really dig deep. While charting the course you thought briefly about the standards you would cover, the types of projects and presentations your students would complete. Now it is time to tear the standards apart, pull out …
Welcome back! Let’s dive right in. You’ve finished reading and annotating the book. It’s time to begin planning for student success. First things first. Pull out the school calendar and a blank calendar. Why pull out the calendar? Everything that we do needs to be purposeful. Purpose is more than just identifying standards and creating …
You’ve decided which book you want to use for a class novel study, what’s next? Well, what shouldn’t happen next is educator and students reading the book together. I can say with some pretty strong confidence that this is not an effective way to study themes, explore new vocabulary, facilitate literature circles, or discussion that encourages …