Building relationships is a huge part of being a successful teacher. How does this work when I can’t have a community meeting on the carpet? Or I can’t greet my students at the doorway because we have to be socially distant? Or because we’re not even in school? How do
First off, read aloud time is non-negotiable in my classroom. But how to fit it into an already packed schedule? Here’s what I’ve learned and how I adapted my schedule. This post may contain some affiliate links, which means if you click on one of the links and make a
Just thinking about morning work makes me sigh. There are too many factors that don’t always line up for it to seem feasible. Here are my problems with morning work: Not every student arrives to school at the same time. Those students who arrive late regularly, or even right when
I’m a solid type B (or C or D) teacher. It’s just not in me to be super organized. Knowing myself, I’ve found four simple systems that help me save time and stay a little more organized. Set these up at the beginning of the year and you’ll thank yourself
Mysteries are probably my favorite genre (see more about my mystery unit here), but historical fiction is a very close second. Students don’t always love learning about history, but historical fiction usually presents the facts in an interesting way. The trick is that I need to get my students excited
I am 10,000% obsessed with Harry Potter. From the moment I started teaching, I kept looking for ways to incorporate this novel into my classroom. I really wanted to be able to show my students the magic of these books, even though it’s now so easy for them to have
Often when I see posts and activities about growth mindset, they usually include some amazing picture books. While I love picture books, novels are a huge part of my classroom. My yearlong curriculum is based completely on using novels (with some additional resources, especially for non-fiction). This is when I
The day we start a new novel is one of my favorites. I’m always ecstatic to share a book that I love with my class and to get them all as interested in reading as I am. Choosing the right way to start off a novel unit can be tricky
I hope you’ve been following along with the great journey through our entire mystery unit. First, my Detective Mission got my students engaged and excited. Then we watched a little Scooby Doo to reinforce our detective skills. Most recently, my class was split into two groups, reading mystery novels while
Hopefully you’ve been following along with my series about teaching all about mysteries. If you’re just jumping in, be sure to flip back to read about how I set the stage to engage my students with a Detective Mission and how we used Scooby Doo to help us practice what
The first FIVE days of lesson plans for the beginning of the year.Visual, clickable resource grid.Free & delivered to your inbox. 
