Whenever I talk to students, whether in my own class or during school visits, I’m inevitably asked how my book, First Day Jitters, came into being. The answer is simple. I owe it all to a timed writing assignment! Over twenty years ago, my class and I were doing a 10 minute quick write on …
First Day Jitters and a Timed Writing Assignment Read More »
Throughout my years as a writing teacher, I consistently saw that many students didn’t know how to effectively revise. “My sentences are complete, and I’ve corrected my spelling. I’m done,” they would tell me. But they weren’t. And even if they had beautiful language, a well-organized beginning, middle and end, and grammatically correct paragraphs, their …
Obviously, as a writer, it is important to continually work at understanding your craft and improving your skills. However, to my mind, just as important to literary success is purposefully developing the irreplaceable attributes of a writer’s mindset; patience, perserverance, the ability to reflect, and most important of all, self-forgiveness. Patience: We all know that …
Four Essential Attributes Every Writer Needs (And Teachers Too!) Read More »
On the wall facing the front door of the middle school I attended a long, long time ago, there was a saying, in big, bold letters, that caught my eye every morning as I walked into the building. Another day, another chance. I saw it. I read it. And I absorbed it. Not on purpose, …
I am not a football fan, but when I taught middle school, I pretended to be one, so I’d have something to talk about to some of the boys in my class. I will admit though, to discovering that I really liked the motivational stories of players’ grit and determination. As I read about the …
What Teachers Can Learn About Motivation from NFL Coach Gary Kubiak Read More »
We’ve all heard the saying, “If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.” Now, substitute the word teacher for mama. And then, substitute the words optimistic and supportive for the first happy in the quote. You now have a new, albeit, less memorable saying: If the teacher isn’t optimistic and supportive of student success, then the …
Optimism and an “I Believe in You” Attitude Are Powerful Teaching Tools Read More »
“By words we learn thoughts, and by thoughts we learn life.” –Jean Baptiste Girard I have a question for you. Which comes first? Thoughts or words? I would argue that words must first be present in order to form thoughts. The more complex your vocabulary is, the more complex your thoughts can be. As a …
“The main thing is keeping the main thing the main thing.” –Stephen Covey In the flurry of day-to-day lesson planning and teaching, the emphasis on standardized testing and the increasing social/emotional demands placed on teachers (and I’m not even mentioning remote learning!), it is easy to lose track of what the “main thing” is in …
“We surprise ourselves by what we write. Writing is thinking, not thought recorded.” —Donald Murray Far be it from me to add one more thing to your plate. Heaven knows, it’s already overflowing! However, this one-more-thing isn’t to please your administrator or a grumpy parent or the critical public. It is just for you. (Isn’t …
“Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.” –Henry Ford I have always thought that one of the gifts of being a teacher is that every school year, and new semester for that matter, presents us with a fresh start. No matter how difficult the previous year or semester was, we get to take …
Second Semester: Give the Gift of a New Beginning Read More »