Learn from a veteran, NBCT English teacher how to grade less, not more so that you don’t become a workaholic zombie.
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Read my latest tips, tricks, and musings below.
210 Fun Debate Prompts & Essay Topics That are Argumentative
Argumentation and persuasion. The art of rhetoric is about helping students think critically and communicate effectively. Students don’t usually need help forming opinions. They come to us fully-loaded with opinions…
210 Fun Debate Prompts & Essay Topics That are ArgumentativeRead More
Unlock Creativity: 23 Ideas for Teaching Poetry
Sometimes inspiration for writing poetry comes easily, as easy as remembering a favorite memory or looking out the window. Aaaaand sometimes when you’re teaching poetry to middle or high school…
Refresh Grammar Instruction in Middle School & High School
Many teachers find that their grammar instruction includes piecing together grammar lessons and resources. Grammar may be under-emphasized (who has the time!?) or over-emphasized (marking EVERY error in student papers…
Refresh Grammar Instruction in Middle School & High SchoolRead More
Steal My Born a Crime Teaching Ideas
Deciding to teach Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime to sophomore students several years ago was one of the BEST shifts for student engagement. Students, on semester exit surveys, regularly comment…
10 Simple Ways to Streamline Teacher Planning
It’s no secret that creating lesson plans and engaging activities for students is a time consuming and occasionally daunting task. You can spend hours upon hours trying to organize everything,…
100 Fun Getting to Know you Questions for Back to School (or anytime)
When it’s time for a brand new school year, you know what that means: starting fresh and learning about a whole different set of students. Of course it takes time…
100 Fun Getting to Know you Questions for Back to School (or anytime)Read More
11 Active Learning Strategies for Reading Fiction
When administrators leave their offices and conduct walk-throughs, they look for evidence of active learning. When we communicate home to parents that we want students to “participate more” or be…
Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in English Language Arts Classrooms
Seems these days we are spending a lot of time and resources developing artificial intelligence, paying less attention to our own intelligence, to help us in our daily lives. Unsure…
Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in English Language Arts ClassroomsRead More
32 Graphic Novels to Encourage Independent Reading
When students pick up their phones, they aren’t reading eBooks. They are checking Insta, scrolling Tik Toks, binging YouTube. They bombard themselves with visuals. They find themselves more comfortable with visual…
Fun Classroom Games for Building Relationships
It’s the beginning of the school year. You scan through the mental rolodex of ideas for getting to know your students (because, let’s face it, you’re getting older and you…
Exploring Figurative Language Examples in Popular Culture
I’m going to use a figurative language example here: 1000 times today my students have talked about Taylor Swift’s new album. Has it been 1000 times? Nah, but it feels…
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Using Rhetorical Devices to Write More Effectively
If you want to be a rhetorical devices finder, you might have plenty to look for here in this blog post. Indeed, you can find them in speeches, in literature,…
Effective Teaching Resources & Strategies For English Teachers
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