For the last month, I have been helping two other teachers get our middle school chorus ready for their spring concert and Fine Arts night in May. They are singing three selections from The Greatest Showman. Continue reading
The Future is Now.
Or so it seems. . . . A couple of weeks ago, the inevitable happened. . . . a student used AI and ChatGPT to “write” his assignment. I thought I had pretty much madeContinue reading
Week Three–Reading Workshop, Book Clubs, Units of Study
Is it spring break yet? I am exhausted. . . . Spring has sprung; the pollen has really created allergy issues for me for the last three weeks or so. I love spring; my floweringContinue reading
Are You Using ChatGPT?
When I first started reading about OpenAI ChatGPT, I knew it would have an impact on education and pedagogy. Teachers of writing already have difficulty with plagiarism in the classroom, even when we teach usingContinue reading
Following: Instagram Accounts to Follow
I admit it: I am not good with social media. I have a Facebook account to keep up with my children and my grandson. In the last two or three years, though, I have beenContinue reading
Week Two with Lucy Calkins’s Units of Study
Last week, I dove into the pool’s deep end with a reading and writing workshop. It is HARD work! I’m using teaching points from Lucy Calkins’s Units of Study for middle school reading: A DeepContinue reading
Reading/Writing Workshop — Week 1
This is the end of the first week of reading and writing workshop in my classes. I am reading a couple of books–The Literacy Studio by Ellin Oliver Keene (she wrote Mosaic of Thought years ago,Continue reading
Revising My Thinking–and My School Year
I am halfway through the third quarter of the 2022-2023 school year. It has been another hard year: it is the year of our five-year accreditation evaluation; the learning “gaps” are becoming more obvious; it’sContinue reading
What’s Up with EQ’s?
Essential Questions. I first heard about them in the early 2000s when I took some Intel Teach to the Future training. We had to create a unit plan and portfolio using Microsoft products that weContinue reading
Standards and Mastery
One of the things I’ve struggled with this past year is assessment. I am not satisfied with the standard multiple choice test as a way of measuring students’ learning. They, as I did, often memorizeContinue reading