Viewing: Writers Project
PBL Secret Sauce #3: Aligning the Standards to Your PBL Unit
Here’s my new screencast showing two ways I ensure that any unit I design or adapt is aligned to our required standards. In a nutshell: Plan around a particular standard and design with that standard(s) in mind from the
PBL Secret Sauce #2: Student-Generated Questions
For Part II in my PBL video series, I thought I’d share how I integrate student-generated questions throughout the sequence of the unit. In other words, the students generate the prompts that help propel them along the PBL journey. This
A Book Review From My Students: Mia Lee is Wheeling Through Middle School
PBL is about meaningful learning, and sometimes that means keeping my antennae up to identify possible ways to bring that authenticity to my students. Sometimes, however, an opportunity falls into my lap. Such is the case with this book review
PBL Secret Sauce #1: The Entry Level Event
I know that when teachers learn about Project Based Learning, many times they walk away with the rationale, the research, and the overview of what a unit might look like. But sometimes teachers still have questions about the day-to-day implementation.
Prepping for Open House Right From the Start: The Classroom as a Portfolio
So it’s the beginning of the year. You’ve probably spent a few out-of-contract days setting up your classroom to look ready for the masses. You’ve hung brightly colored bulletin boards and surrounded them with stapled up content-related borders. The same
Abstract Concept to Concrete Awareness: 3DPrinting to Teach Growth Mindset
One of the things I like about 3d Printing in middle school is that it makes the abstract more concrete. Middle schoolers need that because of where their brain is at developmentally. They straddle the threshold from concrete thinking to
The Internet Research Game & 3D Printing: No Whammies!
So in an attempt to broaden the use of the 3D printers in my room, beyond that of my Maker-themed ELA class, I thought I’d leverage the curiosity for the devices as an incentive for my additional classes. That way,
7 Steps to Help Students Succeed on Assessments
This year, I was given a class of LTELs (long-term English Language Learners) and recently exited SPED students with the goal of focusing my lesson implementation on engagement and more social-emotional learning. So we’re leading up to our first grade-level
Lessons to Share: 3D Printing and Design to Learn Reading & Writing
So I just finished my first week with my Make Writing class. This class, as I’ve written about in the past, is intended to help those long-term EL students who have become disengaged with school and with learning. These kids
Pencils to 3D-Printers: A New Kind of Language Arts Class
“The printers have been ordered. Fingers crossed. Here we go…..” This was the email I received two weeks ago from my principal who is working with me to develop a whole new kind of Language Arts class. The plan
5 Nonfiction Articles + Novels Series: Middle School Edition (Jan.)
Mutually Beneficial Animal Relationships (Photos) Written by: Huffington Post Staff Published On: The Huffington Post “The ostrich isn’t very good at smelling, while the zebra can smell pretty well. The zebra though, doesn’t have good eyesight, but the ostrich does.
Making, Writing, & Leaving My Wheelhouse: How This Relates to ELD Students (UPDATED)
I first began blogging to reflect on what I was learning during my summer with the Writing Project. After each day, I returned home, head spinning, needing to simply process. Finally, my husband said, “Why don’t you try starting one
5 Nonfiction + Novels Series: The Middle School Edition for Dec. 2015
My newest post is the first in a series in which I’m collaborating with Talks with Teachers podcaster and blogger, Brian Sztabnik. Brian not only moderates the #aplitchat on Twitter but also writes the 5 Nonfiction + Novels series for
Book Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
You know the old commercial: “You got your chocolate in my peanut butter! Well, you got your peanut butter in my chocolate!” And just like a Peanut Butter cup, it seems that Jane Austin and Zombies go great together. Pride
How to Battle Epic Paragraphing
Every year my nemesis rears its ugly head: the epic paragraph. Epic paragraphs are those essays comprised entirely of one mega-paragraph with no indentations to indicate transition from thought thought. I bet you thought your kids were the only ones
San Gabriel Valley CUE Teacher of the Year!
I won the San Gabriel Valley CUE (Computer Using Educators) Outstanding Teacher Award. Hazzah! I’m not sure CUE realizes, however, that my enthusiasm for Ed Tech outweighs my knowledge. My daily calls with questions to the computer teacher can attest
Students, Sexting, and the threat to Ed Tech
Thanks to Scott McLeod for Twittering the following article from The Washington Post. It describes a terrible ordeal that an administrator went through battling charges of “failure to report suspected child abuse” and potential child pornography after students were caught sexting on
Twitter as Think Aloud
I was reading through my Digg headlines this weekend, and I happened on this article of the top 10 most extraordinary Twitter updates. I also did some digging (no pun intended) and found articles that range in claiming that there
Fictional Crushes
OK, don’t tell my husband, but I have a fictional crush. That is, I have a crush based on a fictitious character. I think I’ve always had one, but the object of my literary love has always changed with my
Obama’s “Race to the Top”
So US News is reporting that President Obama and the educator leaning out of the sidecar, Arne Duncan, have created “a $5 billion ‘Race to the Top’ fund for states that have made progress on the following fronts: 1) improving
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