No one in my class had any idea that the quiet boy who sat at table one had it going on. That his responses to our novel were insightful and went beyond the basics. It probably would have stayed this way and he never would have become a contracted response expert if I didn’t do this one thing….
Read MoreI am in awe of those teachers who can turn their classrooms into a mini Disney World overnight. I scroll Pinterest, save the ideas, dream a little, but secretly know that in this season of my life these amazing classroom transformations will live in the magical world of Pinterest Land. And that’s ok. I can still set the stage to engage without all the time and effort! In fact, this idea only took me less than 5 minutes to set up!
Read MoreRETHINKING GRAMMAR LESSONS
When I think of grammar lessons, I'm transformed to my 6th grade classroom where my teacher is standing at the blackboard {with chalk and everything} diagraming sentences. I remember looking around at the bored faces of my classmates, the eyes rolling back, and drool puddling on the desks.
I knew I had to do something to make my grammar a little more exciting!
I know you have that one class that pushes all of your buttons. For me, it's my first period. It is a group of 15 students who failed language arts last year. All together. In one class. To top it all off, it's almost all boys. Apathy and attitudes run deep and wide. After about a week of frustration, I knew that traditional teaching was not going to work. Even if I'm upbeat, excited, and throwing all of my best stuff at them. It was like putting on a show to an empty theater. So now in this class we do a little bit of language arts, and a whole lot of mindset work.
It's a little something I call Life Class.
