Ms. Vigna
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When I requested funding for the NCTE registration fee from my admin team in the early fall, I said I wanted to focus on activism and middle school literacy instruction. Learning more about both as a relatively new sixth grade teacher at a progressive lab school seemed valuable. However, now that I have returned from…
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Two summers ago, I discovered my core values at Mount Holyoke’s Coaching Institute, and my life has not been the same since. My core values and my regular reflection on their presence in my life have helped me thrive professionally and personally. By seeking them out in my classroom and beyond, I am working towards…
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It’s been a minute (or more than two years) since I posted a collection of literacy links. I’m thrilled to return to this routine. As I revamped this site, I revisited past literacy links and gleaned loads of great back-to-school ideas. Still have over twenty to go, so I’ll keep my pen and notebook handy.…
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That’s my dad. The one sportin’ the mask, gloves, and Casio watch. This was the early 1980s. He’s probably still wearing that watch. As a child, I sometimes visited my dad’s medical research lab. I remember lots of equipment. Lots of stainless steel and glass. Lots of lab coats hunched over microscopes. It was both…
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I know that Scholastic Book Fairs aren’t equitable and show loads of privilege, but I’m still going to recommend books to my young readers and their families. So I learned how to make Instagram Reels. Whew! I *truly* understood how my grandparents must’ve felt when they learned how to email. It took me DAYS to…
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At the beginning of April, I published the Pot of Gold portfolio of resources (digital one-page, bulletin board, zine, and podcast). The focus this month: POETRY! I’m not exaggerating when I say that poetry saved my sanity during the first year of the Pandemic. Usually a voracious reader, I could NOT read books. I couldn’t…
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On Valentine’s Day, I led a 45-minute session of professional learning on “Making the Most of the BAS” for the K-5 teachers in my school. The BAS takes time and getting it done can feel so final and complete, but it’s really just the beginning! The amount and variety of information we learn from the…
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February 2, 2022 is the 13th annual World Read Aloud Day! In the Before, my colleague and fellow reading enthusiast planned a day of read aloud activities. This year’s offerings are going to be a lot more passive. Our school is just coming off of a very draining week, and asking teachers to do *another*…
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Whoweeee. I dragged my feet posting this ONE HUNDREDTH volume. These Literacy Links aren’t anything groundbreaking, but one hundred of anything feels significant. Maybe I couldn’t think of a significant way to celebrate. Maybe everything else felt more significant. Maybe a little bit of both. But while posting some more resources to the teacher page…
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Passive PD isn’t my fave or at all effective really, but I have really enjoyed curating my Pot of Gold bulletin boards. The latest one is all about vocabulary, and I’ve been collecting ideas for the past several months (Golden nugget tip: Keep a file open as a place to deposit moments of genius when…
A SEA OF TALK 