Try these human rights resources instead. I recently wrote a post on Medium and my sister blog called “Dear Parents: Scientology Wants to Get Inside Your Child’s Classroom” about how an organization known as Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI) offers a human rights educator’s kit for teachers to use in their classrooms. Not realizingContinue reading “Dear Teachers: Avoid these so-called “educator’s kits” from the Church of Scientology”
Tag Archives: Middle School
Memoir Mentor Text: Something I Wrote that I Now Use as a Mentor Text
It’s hard to find mentor texts sometimes, and occasionally I just write one myself when the need arises, or I scroll through my sister blog to find stories I’ve already written. For my students, I define “memoir” as a personal narrative that contains a beginning, middle, and end, plus a lesson learned from the situation. ThatContinue reading “Memoir Mentor Text: Something I Wrote that I Now Use as a Mentor Text”
Dear Teachers: Scientology wants to get inside your classroom.
And they don’t need Tom Cruise to do it. A year ago last fall, I scanned the first page of a glossy teacher’s guide, part of a free educator’s kit sent to me (at my request) from Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI), an organization I had discovered in an online search for some teachingContinue reading “Dear Teachers: Scientology wants to get inside your classroom.”
Here’s what happened when I submitted a student’s writing to a hunting magazine
Last fall, one of my seventh-grade students wrote an “Expert Advice” article, one of ten assignments in our Writer’s Workshop project list. My students seemed to like this particular assignment. They chose a topic they were familiar with and then wrote a how-to article. “Jared” wrote an article called “Four Ways Novice HuntersContinue reading “Here’s what happened when I submitted a student’s writing to a hunting magazine”
Seventh-graders publish first issue of Whippersnappers newsletter
It’s a Project-Based Learning partnership with White River Valley Historical Society The October-November 2017 issue of WRVHS Whippersnappers was published a few weeks ago! My seventh-grade students wrote all the content for the issue using online archived articles from the White River Valley History Society Quarterly magazine as their research. They designed the content around HalloweenContinue reading “Seventh-graders publish first issue of Whippersnappers newsletter”
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”
Six Things I’ve Learned So Far from Using Instagram in My ELA Classes
#workinprogress #experiment #askmeagaininMay I attended an ed-tech conference over the summer. One of the sessions, Social Media in the Classroom, was taught by a middle school teacher from another district in my area who admins a private Instagram account for her ELA classes. The idea intrigued me. I already knew Instagram was fun, based onContinue reading “Six Things I’ve Learned So Far from Using Instagram in My ELA Classes”
Worth the wait… fifteen students are now published writers!
Last spring, many of my students entered their “Where I’m From” poems in Creative Communication‘s Spring 2017 Poetry Contest. Fifteen are now published writers with the printing of the anthology shown in the photo. I am so proud of them! I’ve also shared these photos and posted them on my class Instagram page… IContinue reading “Worth the wait… fifteen students are now published writers!”
It’s hard to teach middle schoolers this: grammar rules exist to bring readers on your journey
Part 4 of 4 In my classroom, I stress that writing is so much more than just knowing a bunch of grammar and punctuation rules. Writing is really about expressing oneself, your dreams, your beliefs, your hopes, your imagination. Writers don’t write to show off to readers that they know how to avoid vagueContinue reading “It’s hard to teach middle schoolers this: grammar rules exist to bring readers on your journey”
Reading about how to teach writing
It has its ups and downs I love reading books about the teaching of writing. It’s always so valuable to me to find ways to help kids love writing! Right now, I’m re-reading Real Revision by Kate Messner, a text chock-full of innovative strategies that real-life published authors use when they revise their own writing.Continue reading “Reading about how to teach writing”