School and the City

Whether you are a brand new teacher or a veteran teacher moving to a new grade level or subject area, this post is to encourage you to grow your content knowledge now. This may seem like a no-brainer to you, but it certainly wasn't for me. When I was hired for my first year of teaching, I was hired to teach 2nd grade. Before being hired, I had spent less than 2 weeks in a 2nd grade classroom. In the middle of the year. In a different state. I began my first year of teaching having noooo idea what I would be teaching my students. I cringe just thinking back on this. I'm not suggesting you spend your summer studying or doing any heavy lifting when it comes to content knowledge. But if you know what grade level or subject area you will be teaching, spend just a little bit of time getting familiar with your content. Find state resources to learn your content. Google your state standards. Read them. See if your state - or even your district - has...

I'm not sure what I want to be when I grow up. I'm loving the classroom right now, but I think I'd eventually like to move towards teaching teachers. Over the summer, I was looking for some books to read to help myself grow into a teacher leader, so I asked my community on Instagram to share suggestions. Note: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. By purchasing an item from Amazon using these links,  I will receive a small commission on your purchase, although your price stays the same! I use that commission to keep my blog up and running. Thank you! You guys gave some awesome suggestions, and I promised I'd share: 5 Levels of Leadership by John Maxwell Crucial Conversations by Patterson, Grenny, McMillan, Switzler Dare to Lead by Brené Brown How to Thrive as a Teacher Leader by John Gabriel Lead Like a Pirate by Shelley Burgess and Beth Houf Life is Short, Don't Wait to Dance by Valorie Kondos Field Shaping School Culture by Terrenc...

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...

There are so many professional resources out there for teachers to use to grow their practices, but it's so hard to know where to invest your time and money. I plan to honestly review some popular resources, and I'm starting with one of my favorites: The Reading Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo.  The book is organized into 13 chapters, each named with a reading goal, beginning with fluency, moving towards comprehension of fiction and nonfiction, and ending with writing about reading.  Pros : Strategies are for reading levels A to Z. Each goal has its own super-organized table of contents, ordered by increasing reading level. Each page is set up the same way. Each page tells relevant reading levels and text types are appropriate to be used with the strategy, which smaller skills can be tied in, and additional tips. Servallo even gives you child-appropriate language and prompts to use when teaching.  Each page provides some sort of visual aid, whe...

I love to read, and chances are that you do too. As educators, we often read children's literature to stay in-the-know and professional books to improve our practices. But how often do we read fictional novels that can teach us just as much as a teacher textbook? Years ago, when I was in college, my mom (Hi, mom!) handed me a book and said, "If you're going to be a teacher, you need to read this." That book was Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult. She told me it was about a school shooting.  I refused for a long time, because I felt the content was too “heavy.” But, mama knows best, and she kept insisting. Now, I'm hoping you will read it too.  Nineteen Minutes tells the story of a school shooting, including multiple perspectives leading up to, during, and after the nineteen-minute event. It’s eye-opening, thought-provoking, and absolutely heartbreaking. It’s changed me as a person, and it’s my favorite book of all time. I fell in love with Jodi Picoult...

Hi, friends! It's been a while! I am 4 weeks in at my new school, and things are going... well, it's going! As I try to stay afloat and survive the back-to-school chaos in addition to getting acclimated at my new home away from home, I've been trying to stay positive.  A happy teacher is a good teacher.  Well, that may not be exactly true, but you get the idea.  I've been reflecting on a book that I read over the summer, Move Your Bus , written by the truly incredible Ron Clark. I was able to download the book for free with my free Audible trial. I listened to it while I was packing for my move. A lot of the stories in the book were the same stories that Ron Clark told when I went to visit RCA in May , but I still loved the book, especially because it was in his own voice! I plan to add a hardback to my bookshelf soon.  My Biggest Move Your Bus Takeaways: Don't get caught up in negativity. I know we hear this all the time, but it...

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending the Ron Clark Academy Educator Experience with my team. It certainly was an EXPERIENCE! It was an experience that I learned a ton from and will always treasure. Amy from My Bright Bunch I was the first one in the building, and it was CRAZY! I was guided through a room by a 5th grader with a line of dancing, singing kids on either side of me. It was a lot like sorority recruitment, actually! We had some kids stand around and make small talk with us (also like sorority recruitment) until everyone was inside the building. I say "small talk," but they actually had been trained to ask some pretty thought-provoking questions, such as "What is your lifelong dream?" Dang. Some of my team with the man himself! Ignore the no-coffee bags under my eyes.  Then Kim Bearden, the co-founder, asked the fifth grader I was speaking to if she wanted to jump on the trampoline. Except it turns out that Kim wasn't as...