LoC STI Day 1

Day 1 of the Library of Congress Summer Teacher Institute has wrapped up. A few quick reflections... I've got a few pages left in John Dewey's Experience and Education. In it, he says, "teachers need to plan intelligently, considering the capacities, needs, and past experiences" of their students. Design of learning is so important in both …

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Don’t Let the Fire Die

A steady feature of my middle and early high school experience was the weekend long Baptist church youth retreat. The weekends were equal parts fun and serious and often included roasted marshmallows and few hours of sleep. The last night would inevitably include teary renditions of songs like the one that lends its title to post. We were whipped (and whipped ourselves) …

A PD Week in Review

I recently read a blog post about the difficulty of fitting professional development into the school year. Despite a schedule that allows some time during the year for professional development, the post said most PD occurs during the evenings or weekends at home. I began wondering how much time I spent doing PD outside of …

RATS in the Classroom

Teaching writing is one of my consistent struggles. Writing instruction in many ways feels like some strange mystical land into which I've not been granted entry.  For a long time, I just whined about it. But since returning from NCTE, I've been reading Teaching Adolescent Writers by Kelly Gallagher and Write Beside Them by Penny …

Looking Back: NCTE 2009

I had an incredible three and a half days at the National Council of Teachers of English convention in Philadelphia last week. I wrote a kid-friendly summary of the experience on my class blog, but before too much time passed, I wanted to get down a quick list of things I might change next time …