Learning in Room 213

So you have lessons and activities that you've purchased from my TpT store and now you are tasked with teaching from home. What can you do?  (First of all, click here to get some freebies designed for online teaching). I would love to be able to convert all of my products to digital so those of … [Read more...] about Using Room 213 Products for Distance Learning

"How do you do reading workshop with distance learning?" This was actually a question I got recently in a text from a colleague. We had just been informed that we were moving to online teaching and were discussing what's on the minds of many of us these days. How will it all work?  When I told … [Read more...] about How to do Reading Workshop with Distance Learning

It's hard enough to get some of our teens to do the work in class, and now we are expected to get them to do it from home. It seems like a gargantuan task, but is distance learning and student engagement impossible? Distance learning offers many challenges, and this may be one of the greatest … [Read more...] about Distance Learning and Student Engagement

These are crazy, trying times. I know that many of you are scrambling, trying to figure out how to deliver your curriculum to students remotely, so I’ve put together some lessons and strategies for remote learning to share with you. They aren’t specific to any particular text; instead, they are ones … [Read more...] about Lessons and Strategies for Remote Learning

Preventing fear of failure in our students is such an important part of our job. I'm sure that many of you have had "failures" in your life that taught you some important lessons. I know I certainly do. As adults, we can usually look back and understand that the pain that may have come with … [Read more...] about Preventing Fear of Failure

I've heard from my readers that they'd like to know what a day actually looks like in my classroom, so I'm planning some posts that do just that with some lessons for the first week in school. But first, a little background: My seniors' first major assessment will be a narrative essay, so … [Read more...] about Lessons for the first week of school

I love teacher appreciation week because I get to spread some appreciation to my followers. I know that you all work so hard - often without much appreciation - so it's fun to give away some things that will save you time and help you get some time for yourself.All weekend, I'll be giving away some … [Read more...] about Happy Teacher Appreciation Week, 2019

In my last several posts, I've shared the work I've been doing to teach my kids to analyze literature effectively. It all culminated in an essay they wrote last week. I know from past experience that students find this type of writing very difficult, so I decided to walk them through it and let … [Read more...] about The Literary Essay: A Guided Approach

I've made it my mission to explicitly teach my kids how to find good evidence to support their points in literary analysis. In my last post, I wrote about how I had students focus on finding evidence to support claims they made about one section of the book. The strategy in this post is one that … [Read more...] about Teaching Students to Find Evidence in Literature: Part 2

We're reading A Separate Peace in my Pre-IB class right now, and I'm drilling down on teaching them to write analytical statements -- rather than summary. I'm also spending more time teaching them how to find good evidence.  My experience is that students can find a quote to back up a … [Read more...] about Teaching Students to Find Evidence in Literature

As you know, I love learning stations. I've made a lot of them. The problem is that they can be a little tricky to organize. In my first attempt, I used a binder with a combination of page protectors and the plastic sleeves that you use in photo albums. This worked as a way to keep everything  … [Read more...] about Organizing Your Learning Stations