It’s April and English teachers and media specialists across the country are celebrating National Poetry Month with their students. Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest are all bubbling over with ideas and […]
Minutes Matter
A Grading Routine to Minimize Distractions
Years ago, in the early days of online gradebooks, I taught many students who took a learning strategies class as an elective. In that elective, they learned study skills and […]
Teacher Leadership
A Tool to Guide Change in the Classroom
It’s January, albeit the end of January. Most people (whether they’ll admit it or not) thought about changing and improving with the new year. It’s a natural inclination–probably spurred on […]
Minutes Matter
How to Make Student-Friendly Digital Worksheets
As we continue to shift to blended/distance learning, many of us have discovered how easy it is to take the worksheets we created in Word (designed for the copy machine) […]
Minutes Matter
Easy Assessment Options for Classrooms and Distance Learning
Whether we’re going back to school in person or virtually or some combination of the two, I think we can all agree that our job from the start is two-fold: […]
Minutes Matter
A Simple Tool to Improve Comprehension
We need to help our students dig deeper into the text. We want them to understand–to make connections, to be able to explain what they’ve read, to use this knowledge after they’ve left our classrooms.
Teacher Leadership
Classroom Culture Wall
Every morning I get up a few hours before anyone else in my house. I use this quiet time to read, think, write, and drink coffee–it’s my time. It’s also […]
Minutes Matter
A Filing System that Works
How many of us have stacks upon stacks on our desks and almost every other flat surface in the classroom? Use this system to get the papers under control so you can get things done.
Minutes Matter
5 Simple Ways to Improve Learning in Every Class
These five easy-to-manage strategies will help your students process their understanding and show them (and you) what they do and don’t know.
Minutes Matter
How to Simplify Your Rubric and Get Better Results
Approaching rubrics as an instructional tool (as opposed to an evaluation technique) makes them much more powerful. To maximize the value, we need to simplify the tool.