Reflections on Leaving the Classroom: One Year Later
We left the classroom a little more than a year ago and are reflecting on what we've learned and new perspectives we have gained as a r...
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Helping teachers who value high-quality curriculum but are tired of sacrificing self-care, family time, and time with students to create it. If you’re looking for ways to help feel better ab...
Episodes
20 of 43 episodesPlays to Teach in Your High School English Classroom
As a teacher, deciding which plays to teach is a rite of passage all its own. Will you stick to the classics or branch out and try something...
Is English Class Still Relevant? ELA Skills Students Need
In this episode of the podcast, we're discussing whether traditional ELA instruction provides our students with the skills they most ne...
Class Discussion Strategies to Get Everyone Participating
Ideally, we'd like to have all of our students participating in class discussion. When too many students aren't participating, we...
What We've Learned from Our Most Challenging Students
The difficulties posed by challenging students and classes can really wear a teacher down. Our misery will often make us desperate and open...
Five(ish) Simple Strategies for Building Reading Stamina
Do you dread those days when you're expecting your students to read in class? If your students don't like to read: not independent...
Improving Parent-Teacher Communication
How do you feel about your level of parent-teacher communication? Is it something you've got down? Is it your teacher superpower? Or, a...
Long Time, No Break
March is, arguably, the worst month for teachers, though October certainly puts up a good fight for itself. We’ve been teaching the same stu...
Writing a Research Paper? Try Career Research
Many students are overwhelmed by the seemingly insurmountable task of writing a research paper and emerging writers often shut down because...
Teaching Writing Can Be a Struggle
Do you feel like you’re trying strategy after strategy to improve your students’ writing . . . and none of them is really working? You’re no...
How to Introduce a New Book Into Your Curriculum
Have you found a NEW text that you want to add to your curriculum? First of all, congrats! Introducing students to books (they will hopefull...
Novels We Love and Hate to Teach
This week's dilemma will be a familiar one for any teacher who has been teaching the same prep for a few years: “I want to change the n...
School Grading Systems: Trying to Make Sense of Grades
Traditional grading, standards-based grading, grade floors, it’s all enough to make any teacher’s head spin. What does a student's grad...
How to Reset for a New Semester
We've all been there before. At some point during the fall semester, the wheels started coming off the bus, the train went off the trac...
Teachers Under Pressure: Semester Grades
Grades. Pressure. Anxiety. For us, these three words were inextricably linked with December (and May) for years. We started to feel the nast...
Academic Dishonesty: How to Deal With Cheating in Your Classroom
Cheating in the classroom is as much a part of the school experience as bad cafeteria lunches and popular cliques you're not a part of....
Whole Class Discussions: Finding What Works for You
A lively and engaging whole class discussion. We imagine ourselves sitting perched on a stool, steaming cup of coffee in hand, listening to...
Teacher Tips: Responding to Criticism (Because It's Inevitable)
Whether it comes from parents, students, counselors, or administrators, as a teacher, you will inevitably hear criticism about the decisions...
Grading Papers: Help Managing Your Grading Load
Managing the grading load is one of the worst parts of teaching, especially in the ELA classroom where the stacks of essays seem only to gro...
Learning More About the Flipped Classroom
The flipped classroom model has a lot to offer teachers and can be a great benefit to students, but many are reluctant to give it a try. We...