School and the City

Last weekend, I had the privilege of attending the Teach Your Heart Out conference onboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, Navigator of the Seas! Quality time with other teachers, who just GET me... PD at sea... What could be better?! Let me tell you all about it.    We boarded the ship on Friday in Miami. Having arrived early, we were able to spend the afternoon at the pool meeting and hanging out with teachers from all over the country!  On Friday night, TYHO threw a luau-themed welcome party. We had a great time on the dance floor!   Saturday was reserved for the conference.  Sessions were divided up by grade level, but not mandated, so that each teacher could choose relevant sessions! I started the morning with a joint session by Juan Gonzalez and Brittany Root , "Turning Content into an Adventure." They talked about engagement strategies for introducing new topics as well as fun - but rigorous - ways to p...

I've already written all about HOW and WHY you should use choice boards in your classroom. Are you convinced yet? (If not, revisit that blog post here .) I've made tons of choice boards for my own classroom (13, to be exact!) and many others for YOUR classroom based on requests. View all of my choice boards here .  So are you ready to try choice boards, and maybe even wanting to make one personalized to your own classroom? THIS is the blog post for you!  Recently, I was featured on the Edverything Podcast reiterating why I love choice boards and telling teachers step by step how to make their own. (Listen here ).  Want a quick recap of the design segment of the podcast? Here are the basic steps I go through when making my choice boards: 1. Choose your topic and zoom in. 2. Review your standards BEFORE designing tasks... I learned this the hard way!  3. If needed, pull up a visual aid for Bloom's Taxonomy to get your...

Year six is DONE, y’all! ⁣⁣ I spent a lot of time during the last week working on my “back to school box,” which I’ll pack in my closet LAST so it’s easily accessible when preplanning rolls around much too soon. I learned this trick from some other teacher friends of mine, and it truly makes returning from summer break SO MUCH EASIER and so much less stressful! I’ve been doing this for the past few years and it’s a TOTAL game changer - seriously. ⁣⁣ 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞: Sneak Peek supplies (tablecloths, signs, forms, etc)⁣⁣ Supplies I’ll need immediately (scissors, Sharpies, stapler, staple remover) ⁣⁣ Blank nametags for desks and for students ⁣⁣ Back to school bulletin board decor⁣⁣ Birthday treats for the year⁣⁣ Folder of master copies for first week ⁣⁣ Basic copies for the first week ⁣⁣ A note I wrote to myself when I started my first year of teaching: My former principal made the whole staff do this, and I still have it! ⁣⁣...