How to Reignite Your Passion for ELA (Part 3 of 5)

Learn something new! Note: This is the third of five daily posts on how to spark, reignite, and maintain your passion for ELA. Click here for yesterday’s post: Reignite Your Passion for ELA Part 1 of 5: Wear Your Reading Passion. Other than my first year of teaching, the 2021-2022 school year was my mostContinue reading “How to Reignite Your Passion for ELA (Part 3 of 5)”

“So are you calling us stupid?!”

Teaching the standards takes time; so does building trust. “So are you calling us stupid?!” a middle school student asked me two months into my first year of teaching. Her eyes bore straight through to my heart. It was 9:15 a.m. on a Monday during my first year of teaching in a small rural schoolContinue reading ““So are you calling us stupid?!””

My Seventh-Graders Told Me This: Everything’s Gonna Be Okay

The future of the country is in good — albeit small — hands.   Just when you think the country is spiraling out of control due to natural disasters, political upheaval, and lone wolf violence, you read some words written by twelve- and thirteen-year-olds and you realize that kids will carry us through. In short,Continue reading “My Seventh-Graders Told Me This: Everything’s Gonna Be Okay”