It can feel overwhelming to sort through the materials provided by your district or textbook publisher. This is exacerbated by looking at a pacing guide that seems to suggest other teachers are flying through every activity in a number of days that seems wildly unrealistic for your students (spoiler alert: those pacing guides are unrealistic for every classroom!).
You’ve been there before: “I’m setting clear expectations. Students know exactly what they need to do on this assignment/essay/test/project.” You’ve…
Most students (let’s be real, most humans) tend to exert the minimum level of effort needed to complete a task. And this isn’t necessarily a bad thing – we don’t have the time, energy, or resources to go above and beyond on every. single. task. This can become frustrating in our classrooms, however, when students turn in poor quality work on what we thought was a good assignment or earn low scores on a quiz we thought they were well-prepared for.
While assigning homework has long been a part of the middle and high school English class experience, sometimes it’s time…
How do you encourage students to engage with you or ask the questions you know they have? Your students will, no doubt, initially be quiet. The silence, literal or virtual, may feel deafening, or you may react as we sometimes did: This is a gift. We can tend to the many other things on our plates. However, even in the busiest seasons, we challenge ourselves to reach out to each individual student at least once a week.
It’s nearly summer. Your personal calendar has a countdown to your last duty day. On your whiteboard is a countdown…