Well, it's back to school time for me, and a big part of my classroom preparations involved "tidying up" my classroom library.  I always have a ton of questions about how I organize my somewhat ridiculous collection of books--so I thought I'd share a little bit about how I get my library ready so that my students can really dig into their reading from that first week of school! Here is my monster shelf of books...this is where a huge chunk of my collection lives...this and the "yellow spinny thing" that I inherited about 20 years ago from a retiring teacher.  These two sections of my collection are organized in bins and are grouped in author and series collections.  For series where I have only a few, I put several "like" series in one bin.  Each bin has a label with a number...and that number gets written on each book in the bin.  This makes it SUPER easy for students to return books to the right place. Here you'll see another ...
"{Insert name here}, I'm done.  Now what?"  Sound familiar?  If I got a quarter, or a penny for that matter, every time a student asked me that question, I could probably put in for early retirement! Having a collection of go-to activities for early finishers is a must!  First, that pesky question is no longer being asked.  Next, having activities accessible to students reduces the boredom which in turn, reduces the troublesome behavior.  Also, activities can and should extend and/or enrich students' learning.   Including activities for early finishers can be as simple as you want to make it.  Early on in my teaching career, I had what I called "wise choices."  It was a list of activities that students could choose from when they were finished with an assignment.  The list was a short standard list.  It included unfinished work, reading, or writing.  When I was asked that "I'm done, now what?" question, I simply pointed to my wise ch...
The 2016 Presidential election is fast approaching. This election has been one of the most controversial ones in recent memory. How do teachers tip-toe around student opinions and just teach the facts? We have created this blog post to help guide you on how to teach the presidential election without bias. Do's and Don'ts Teachers must maintain professionalism in the classroom when teaching about the election. Favoritism toward one candidate cannot be displayed in any way. Even though the classroom teacher may have strong convictions, s/he cannot try to persuade the students to support one candidate over the other. Because of this, we have created a  a table emphasizing the do's and don'ts in the classroom that should be adhered to. You can download it for FREE  here . What Ifs... There will probably be some questions and tense moments in the classroom. Here is a list of "What if's" that may surface in the classroom and how to handle them. ...
I love Enemy Pie! The first time I read the book to my class, I was hooked.  I'm not sure if it was the adorable illustrations, the clever storyline, or how relatable  the story is, but it was a book that I incorporated into my classroom every single year!  Each time I read it I found new ways I could use it in my teaching.  I thought it would be fun to share with you some of the ways I have used Enemy Pie by Derek Munson in my classroom. Be sure to grab the FREEBIE at the end! I love giving my students a list of ways they can "hook" their readers at the beginning of their narrative writing piece .  A hook is a way of beginning a story so that you grab the reader's attention.  Some good hooks that I always suggest are starting with an action scene, dialogue, or figurative language (Onomatopoeia), etc.  However, I use Enemy Pie to teach my writers how to begin their story with suspense. After teaching a lesson about the importance of hooking your reader ri...
Whether you are teaching guided reading, shared reading, or having students read independently, this post will show you how to build reading comprehension strategies into your instruction.  You will also find a FREE Reading Strategies Questions sheet to use with your instruction! It is important to teach the reading strategies according to the following method.  It has been proven to be an effective approach.  Teach one per week and focus on that one strategy throughout the variety of readings that week.  I found the best method is to: Explain:  Whether you are using an anchor chart, writing on a board, or oral teaching, explain each strategy. Model:  Always model so students can see how it is applied. Apply:  Students should apply the strategy in their reading. What reading strategies should you build into your lessons?  See below for the 10 Reading Strategies that will help your students effectively comprehend their text. Think about questi...