Ela teacher

If you are looking for free and inexpensive tools to make the most of instructional time with your students, check out these ideas.

The good, the bad, and the ugly of what daily silent reading really looks like in my middle school ELA classroom.

As students head back to school, ELA teachers everywhere are considering how they are going to begin the school year, so I wanted to walk you through one of my favorite lesson plans entitled, “Why do we read?” As an educator, there are few things as exciting and rewarding as introducing a young person to […]

This introduction to poetry gives teachers ideas on teaching poetry minlessons that make a difference in how your students think about poems.

In the first month of school, teachers are usually focused on classroom setup, establishing procedures, launching routines, and digging into the first unit. Although we DO want students to be organized and to feel safe as individuals, we also need them to open up and collaborate as part of a bigger classroom community. Read on for 9 ideas about how to create bonding, shared experiences, and interactions that foster community-building. (By the way, you can check out a similar blog post of…

First-year teacher advice: How to prepare for your first year of teaching, how to decorate your classroom, what to do on the first day of school, and more!