Last week, I participated in a Teaching Shakespeare Mini-Institute with the Folger Shakespeare Library. If you ever have the opportunity to participate in one of Folger’s institutes, seize the opportunity. You will not only learn great practical methods for teaching Shakespeare and learn about Shakespeare and his plays, but you will also develop professional ties…
My friend and colleague Lauren, who returned to teaching this year after working with administration at my school, has started a blog called New Teacher Assistance. Lauren’s self-proclaimed audience is new teachers, but we can all learn from her insights. Welcome to the edublogosphere, Lauren, and watch out — I might recruit you to help…
The main message I took away from the second chapter of Penny Kittle’s Write Beside Them is that writing teachers will not be effective unless they are also writers. She says, “We don’t learn many things well just by following directions” (7-8). However, it was this remark that struck a chord with me: “[T]he instruction…
I began Penny Kittle’s Write Beside Them, and even though I am posting at the Learners4Life wiki, I wanted to keep my own reading journal here. In this chapter, I felt Kittle outlined some of her core beliefs: Standardized testing does not rule how she teaches writing in her classroom. The single greatest influence on…
I created a tentative reading schedule for parties interested in reading Penny Kittle’s Write Beside Them at the Learners4Life wiki. It’s not too late to join us if you are interested in participating. I received my copy of the book today, and it looks really good. I am feeling kind of tired, so I don’t…
As you may recall, I am reading Penny Kittle’s Write Beside Them as part of a professional development project along with several other teachers this summer. I am very excited about this project. Using my experience with the UbD Educators’ wiki coupled with this upcoming experience, I plan to present a session at the next…
I am very excited to tell you I was selected to participate in the Teaching Shakespeare Institute here in Decatur, Georgia next month. If you haven’t checked out all the Folger Shakespeare Library has to offer teachers, go take a look now.
The end of the year is drawing closer, and today I was thinking about backward design. This year was the first year I implemented backward design planning. I have been really impressed with how much students have learned. My 9th grade students in particular really seemed to connect to this type of learning; furthermore, unless…
Michael LoMonico let me know of a change in this summer’s Teaching Shakespeare mini-institute in Georgia. The event will now take place at Glennwood Academy in Decatur from June 9-13 and includes a trip to the Atlanta Shakespeare Tavern on Thursday the 12th to see Much Ado About Nothing. The workshop is free, and teachers…
Lisa Huff has created a wiki called Learners4Life where those of us interested in exploring Write Beside Them (which I mentioned in my last post) can gather, discuss, question, journal, interact, respond, and all the other million things you can do with a wiki. In order to join up, all you have to do is…
