reading
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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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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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This week I’m helping launch a first grade readers’ workshop, so I mined my kindergarten resources for familiar reading goals from the Super Reader unit, also known as my favorite kindergarten Reading Unit of Study. Tomorrow, the first grade readers will get a plastic sheet protector to record the number of books they want to…
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This summer, I’m participating in some summer work focused on Cultivating Genius by Dr. Gholdy Muhammad. Our second Zoom discussion is next week, so I’m putting together my thoughts based on the assigned reading. I love this reflection question so much: How does this lesson help students see themselves or others? I used Canva to…
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Reading is a huge part of my life. It’s who I am. My car has a bumper sticker that says “read”, and I have MANY reading-themed graphic tees. So I was devastated when my brain wouldn’t let me read during the pandemic. I would try and then lose track after a few sentences. Eventually, I…
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Someone once doubted my ability to find the joy in teaching, and it was a very painful comment. How could they think that? Was my joy not enough? Or were the things I thought were joyful not obvious to an observer? With my joy-fidence rattled, I decided to infuse as much obviously, outwardly joyfulness into…
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Man, I really wanted to publish Volume 100 by the end of this school year. Turns out being a full-time, *first-time* kindergarten teacher and full-time coach was too much even for an overachiever like me. I don’t feel too bad though. I taught kids how to *read* this year (and even got them all to…
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One of my favorite memories from my own kindergarten experience was a Valentine’s Day station rotation that imitated the process mail goes through to travel from one home to another. So when I started planning a unit on connecting with others as part of my Better Lesson coaching, I knew it would involve some kind…
A SEA OF TALK 