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Practical, self-paced professional development and college credit
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3 Types of Interviews and Conversations in ELA
One of the most rewarding things about being a teacher is watching my students continue the conversation as they leave the classroom.Â
Jul 22, 20242 min read
175 views

Preventing the Use of AI in ELA: 6 Methods
There will always be new tools to help teachers combat the use of AI. A Chrome extension called Origin by GPTZero provides a writing ...
Feb 9, 20243 min read
353 views

Creating Relevance in a Modern Classroom
Sometimes I find myself trying to think of ways to create connections between literature and the real world.Â
Jan 10, 20242 min read
219 views

Modern Learning with Free Literacy Blocks
There are many students that love literature for the world it creates, the brand-new world that exists only within the front and back cover
Jul 18, 20232 min read
154 views

The Basics of Film Interpretation
Teachers want their students to be readers, and not just readers of words. We want them to read the world around them: the streets ...
Apr 14, 20233 min read
505 views

Short Story Adaptations
Creating a short film used to be a long and difficult process, so I gave up on it. But then it became much easier to shoot and edit video.
Feb 16, 20232 min read
292 views


Teaching Media Literacy With Short Stories
It’s not easy to find literature that gets students to talk about the world they live in. It can be done with any novel ...
Jan 11, 20233 min read
166 views

Man vs. Machine: AI and ELA
AI is all the buzz lately. No need to teach writing anymore, a computer can do it...
Dec 21, 20223 min read
420 views

7 Ways to Make Learning Personal
It’s difficult to find a book that every child will love. They like contemporary stories that seem similar to their own ...
Dec 6, 20222 min read
177 views

Autonomous, Relevant Learning and Good Conversation
This week, I asked students to connect the literature we study in class to the modern world. We had amazing, open-ended conversations ...
Apr 6, 20222 min read
567 views

Filmmaking Made Easy: 10 Tips
After I taught the elective Filmmaking for the first time a few years ago, I realized how easy it is for students to quickly create a ...
Jan 24, 20224 min read
751 views


Teaching Shakespeare Using Film: Romeo and Juliet from PBS Great Performances
There is no challenge quite like teaching Shakespeare. Early modern English always poses challenges for teenage readers, and ...
Aug 23, 20213 min read
156 views


5 Ways to Have a Drama-Filled Classroom
No, not that kind of drama. Performance. Few people know how to act, but everyone knows what a good performance looks like. The words...
Aug 17, 20213 min read
188 views

Graduation 2021: Love and Stories
Every year, I complete the final assignment that I give my seniors. I ask them to talk about how it feels to graduate, what they've...
May 30, 20213 min read
239 views

New Year, New Ideas
It’s hard to imagine that anything positive will come out of this year, but I’ve been thinking about what, if any, lessons I’ve learned ...
May 25, 20213 min read
296 views

Where to Find Real Stories on the Web
We’re finishing up a unit on Exit West by Mohsin Hamid this week so I’m asking my students to listen to a personal narrative of choice....
May 7, 20213 min read
165 views

Screencast: The New Essay?
It’s pretty typical for a teacher, or anyone for that matter, to feel like they are swimming in new tech tools. But this year, it’s...
Feb 8, 20213 min read
244 views

Teaching Media Literacy
A lot of what we deal with in English language arts relates to strangers, people we don’t know. We read novels and non-fiction to immerse...
Jan 31, 20214 min read
115 views

Teaching the Novel in a Remote or Hybrid Classroom
I’m trying to get as creative as possible when it comes to being flexible with students. After finishing a few units ...
Jan 11, 20213 min read
629 views

10 Creative Projects for Remote Learning
My colleagues and I recently had a conversation about the rest of the year and what we could do to keep our students engaged....
Dec 23, 20206 min read
226 views

Rethinking Research
I attended the virtual NCTE conference this past Friday and it got me thinking about the research paper, or really, rethinking it. Part...
Dec 7, 20202 min read
364 views

Sketchnoting in the Digital Age
Last week, I told my students to create sketchnotes on the poems we studied in class. I didn't really specify what I was looking for, I...
Nov 10, 20202 min read
249 views

5 Tech Tools for Small Groups and Presentations
Under normal circumstances, we try to steer kids away from socializing so they can stay on task and so that we can give our assessments and
Oct 19, 20204 min read
328 views

5 Goals for Remote or Hybrid Teaching
Right now, I’m keeping the focus on learning and not on assessment.
Oct 2, 20203 min read
301 views
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