Someone asked me, "How do you do all of this and have a young family?" I am used to hearing people say, "Do you ever sleep?" Yes, I sleep. In fact, I need at least 8 hours of sleep each night. Rest is important for me to function at full speed as well as for my recovering brain. It's a fair question. When I was a beginning teacher, I would arrive at school early in the morning and stay there until past dinner. Then, most nights I was doing work at home before bed. It would've been really difficult for me to be an excellent teacher if I were just now starting with littles at home (not to say that others who are just starting and have littles at home can't be excellent teachers, just that it would've been hard for ME). But due to that hard (and likely unhealthy) work back then, I have a lot of strategies in my teacher tool kit and many resources to pull from. I also spend an hour each day in the summer working on resources that will help me durin
It's been proven that those who read the most, read the best . So, if you want students to get better at reading, they actually have to READ. 😀 Enter: book clubs. My students participate in a book club every Thursday during our reading block. My goal for book club is simply to get students excited about reading. By the end of the year, almost every student in my class tells me they like reading more now than they did before this year. Book club is simply about enjoying a book. Picture an adult book club. Everyone is sitting around discussing the book they read. What did they like? What do they wonder? There is no written assignment or accountability. If you didn't read, you can still go to book club and listen to the conversation. Sure, you may not have much to contribute, but no one is taking your work for a grade. This is why book clubs are successful. They are opportunities for people to gather and share their love of reading. This is how book clubs r