The end of August and the beginning of September marks the official kick-off of back-to-school. Many of you have probably been planning for a while. Some of you may be still working out the first few weeks of plans for your classroom. Wherever you are in the planning process, this post is designed to give you some sparks of joy and added creativity in your planning and in your adjustment in the closing out of summer. If you have reached a dead-end, (like I had earlier this week) browse the posts below to find one that may help insert some much-needed inspiration into your plans or your own personal routine. You will find some posts about teaching including ideas for classroom activities, literacy instruction, and how to structure your class setup. You will also find mindset posts about anxiety, stopping negative teacher talk, and remaining uncomfortable as you approach this school year with a focus on anti-bias and anti-racist teaching. I know this school season of 2020-2021 is unlike any other we have faced in the world of teaching; however, I know we can do this through the collaboration of ideas and helpful reminders to see the good in all situations.

We can do this. I promise.

...Her concepts of the growth mindset and fixed mindset were not new, but the way they were phrased was profound and interesting to the English educator giving feedback. I initially keyed in on the type of feedback I was giving students. I wanted to make sure I said more than "good job." I was also saying things like, "I love the way you added detail" and "great job revising your paper" to give specific feedback. This idea of rewards and feedback was just one single aspect of growth mindset studies; it does not capture the entire picture. The best way to describe growth mindset is how you build new pathways to learning...without giving up. I have adopted this mantra with the teaching of writing.  I mean...my blog is called writing MINDSET after all. How we think about teaching, writing, and learning. This is what matters. It would be negligent to not discuss growth mindset in my practice as it has directly impacted how I think about teaching outside of the classroom in meaningful and significant ways

For the first every weekly blog round-up, I wanted to start with one of the hardest and most controversial topics to teach when it comes to English Language Arts and writing instruction: grammar. Understanding grammar is essential to understanding how to put thought on paper, and yet it often falls off to the side of any planbook because we get stuck on ideas, content, voice, and organization. Even with my new rubric coding following the six traits of writing, I grade voice, organization, and ideas first, and only then do I go back in and help students edit and revise in terms of conventions, grammar, word choice, and sentence fluency.