During this past week of school, I had a realization that the newness of the back-to-school season was starting to wear off. I found myself getting used to routines with remote teaching, and I felt like I finally had some organization to my day-to-day schedule again. With this feeling, almost always comes the anticipated dread of the stacking up of the paper pile. Whether this stack is in-person or virtually in a Google Classroom, this pile can feel draining. I can insert other words all associated with burnout. I wanted to do a round-up of posts about grading in general on the blog that I have used throughout the years. Some of these posts are more general posts about grading categories, reflections on blocking out time, and trying to manage the load. Some of these posts are about specific ways that I work through larger assignments to give feedbacks (Hello, conferences and using rubric codes). You will also see a vulnerable post that started the blog in 2017 where I admitted that working through the giant stacks of paper is one of the reasons I would ever consider leaving teaching. As teachers, managing the to-do list and paper load is one of the most important points we make in our own self-care. My hope is that you find a strategy that lightens the stack you have growing on your teacher's desk or in your inbox. Check out these 15+ posts to inspire your grading routine.

I waited tables at a restaurant during college as many did during their formative years. I hated whenever I had to order something OTF or On The Fly. Why? Because immediacy demanded attention out of me, the cook line, and everyone else around me. I would dare say that the entire field of education operates under OTF standards. Everything is an emergency in education, yet there is no fear like the fear that sets in when sub plans have to be made. In my 105 Ways to Make the Most of Winter Break post, I remind everyone to schedule in those sick days...even if you aren't sick. However, the ultimate fear of scheduling sick/sub-days-planned or not planned-is making sub plans. These lessons take hours, are a giant hassle, and sometimes will get printed or set up correctly, and then sometimes not. Now, with the move to online learning, it is important to adapt to this type of environment as well so that creating sub plans is easier even in virtual teaching. I think this transition will change how sub plans are done forever as we move to everything being available online. This post strives to give 25 different sub plan ideas and more for the writing teacher. These could be used for any teacher, but they are particularly helpful if you are an English teacher that focuses on writing.

The fall inevitably brings about the desire and need to change and update your course syllabus. A syllabus is something that is often debated in the English classroom because the crux of the syllabus is really the organization of how the class will run overall. You get information about the materials, the grading practices, and a course schedule. While middle schoolers are brand new to the idea of a course syllabus, high schoolers and college students come to expect this piece of paper on the first day of class. This post shows you some ways to create an engaging document using the computer program Canva. I have included pictures of my old syllabus and what my syllabus looked like in the 2019-2020 school year. If you choose to use Canva, you can make an amazing syllabus using the free version of the program. I personally pay for the upgraded program to get access to pictures, watermark features, downloading features, and more.

Reading and writing are all too often cyclical. Everyone knows good reading fuels good writing and vice versa. As a middle school teacher, I really wish that I was able to teach reading and writing separately or even give them their own block of time, but I do also love the impossible harmony that is being a reading AND writing teacher. This post will explain how I start my week with students, and how I often will start each class. I always start each hour the first day of the week with a book talk about a middle grade or young adult novel or nonfiction book. It kicks off my mentor text work with kids, and it gets them excited about a book they may or may not have heard about before. This post goes into detail to explain why the simple act of talking about books in a way that makes kids want to read them is one of the most important things we can do as teachers each day.

For many years, I lived in the school of thought that my middle-school students wouldn’t want to read picture books. As with many things in teaching, we don’t know until we know. I love reading aloud to my students, and naturally, they love it because reading aloud goes back to a time when they loved reading as young children. As I could spend a lengthy bit of time here on this post about the apparent lack of love of reading that my sixth-graders come into my classroom with every fall, I will l quote Pernille Ripp from #NerdCampMI: “My goal is to make them dislike reading less.” Reading aloud to my students starts to work on this mission. The power of the read-aloud is equivalent to the power of the book talk. When kids hear stories and your recommendations for stories enough, they start to listen. Colby Sharp, a 5th-grade teacher in Parma, Mi, said this past week, “This year the picture book read aloud is as close to normal as anything we are doing in my classroom. The energy in the room is electric and I feed off it” (@colbysharp). This post contains 15 books that will spark electricity with words and stories.

If I were in my classroom’s physical space, I would plan to read one picture book aloud to my students each week. Now that I am virtual teaching, I plan at least 3-4 picture book read-alouds a week. One of my reflections from the 2018-2019 school year was that I loved how I felt solid with my growth in my independent reading program and my mentor text work, but I felt like I needed to be a driving force behind building empathy and compassion through both of these works. Empathy and reading were my two goals for 2019-2020, and they remain my two priorities in online learning. Reading aloud helps build not only a reading community but empathy and compassion in the form of community listening.

I am always on a mission to find more comfort and joy in life. Naturally, I became more curious about how I could infuse my classroom and the act of teaching with more comfort and cozy as well. I stumbled upon the word “hygge” on Pinterest after posting a few photos of rainy days, coffee cups, and twinkle lights as backgrounds. I love all things cozy, but the idea of taking this idea of coziness and comfort into the classroom didn’t hit until I started to read more and post more about hygge. I really don’t envision my classroom at school being filled with candles and everyone sipping peppermint tea like we are at a cafe, but I do see how some of the mantras from the practice of hygge can transfer over into the classroom and create an atmosphere of happiness. I think it is also important to consider the importance of comfort and cozy in the role of online learning. While I know many of us can’t makeover entire corners of our homes and online learning classrooms, some of the ideas in this post can apply to make ourselves feel a little more at ease while teaching from home. Hygge is about comfort. I am hoping that some of the ideas with hygge in this post lead to more happiness in my classroom and home, and therefore, lead to better wellness for me and my students.

According to The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living (The Happiness Institute Series) by Meik Wiking, “The word hygge originates from a Norwegian word meaning “well-being.” For almost five hundred years, Denmark and Norway were one kingdom, until Denmark lost Norway in 1814. Hygge appeared in written Danish for the first time in the early 1800s, and the link between hygge and well-being or happiness may be no coincidence” (ix). Let’s start with how you pronounce hygge. To sound it out, you would say “hue-guh.” Like the hues of the sun and guh rhyming with duh. Hygge is “about an atmosphere and experience, rather than about things” (vi). In short, hygge creates an atmosphere of calm and comfort in everyday things and experiences we all identify with naturally, and then these feelings create a sense of happiness.

As we all return to school this fall, the buzzwords of “social-emotional learning,” “SEL,” and “mindfulness” are swirling around faster than Starbucks is serving up Pumpkin Spice Lattes. The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning otherwise known as CASEL is one of the main research institutes regarding SEL work for PreK-12 education. If you are unfamiliar with social-emotional learning, their website provides a great resource and graphic with the topic introduction including information on the competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. CASEL also offers an interactive online Guide to Schoolwide SEL that has more information. My district rolled out their plan for options to return to learning, and both options include a day dedicated to SEL lessons and learning. The district helped form a pacing guide, but I wanted to reach into my own teacher toolbox for some of the strategies and tools that I use to address social-emotional learning in my classroom. The main resource for SEL is the power of the read-aloud. I have written before on the blog about the power of the book talk, and the read-aloud stands right next to the book talk as a powerful tool to use in any classroom from elementary through high school. This post contains 12 book recommendations for read-alouds, some classroom routines to consider including my own goals with my own SEL work, and some links to further reading. My game plan is to use the power of the read-aloud to begin each social-emotional learning session.

I love looking at what other people have planned for the first two weeks of school. While some people feel inventive and creative, I sometimes feel really pressured to make sure that the first two weeks feel…perfect. And I can guarantee that nothing feels particularly perfect this year as we head back-to-school with online learning. However, I told my classes today: “No matter where we are, we are going to learn and have a great time.” I meant it. I wanted to include my favorite resources, books, and the learning platforms that I am using for heading back-to-school. I know that my teaching will be forever changed due to the adaptations and modifications I am making for my instruction in the current moment. This post starts with my first day plans, and then it provides a simple-structured outline for the rest of the two weeks. I did not include any language regarding essential questions and standards. I wanted to focus on the main activities and the tools I used to plan those activities along the way.

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.

I know not everyone is excited about planning for the upcoming school year. I completely understand. When I first sat down to start planning, (after only hearing the sort of plan in early August) I was completely overwhelmed. That being said, I tried to gather my resources and challenge my mindset in that moment of feeling like I was underwater. For resources, I collected planning materials, teacher books that I was reading over the summer, and my favorite cup of coffee. My mindset on the other hand? I had to consistently tell myself that there is positivity in this change. Some people are struggling with those being positive. I am trying to find a balance between protecting my peace and being a good listener to colleagues. I am not saying that this will be my most outstanding year as a teacher, but I think this year has the capacity to be the biggest year of my own individual growth. What I mean by this is that the systems that run my classroom down to the core are being changed. I have to change with it. Growth always comes from change.

One of those systems of change is grading. In the spring when we did emergency learning, (I like this phrase better because that’s what it was) I was convinced that nobody should be grading anything. I stand by that observation. There is even a big piece of me that still thinks that this should be the case as I continue to look at the number of students I teach that are included in vulnerable populations. My students who are homeless, hungry, watching other siblings, lack internet access, speak another language, and more. I am particularly aware of my students of color as they move into a school year where conversations about George Floyd and Breonna Taylor are left as ellipsis and not periods. However, I wanted to find a way to make my grading system in my classroom fair and equitable for and to all parties. So, if you are making progress in my class, the end result is shown in the grade book and in the conversations about that progress. This isn’t about points. It’s about people. This post outlines my understanding of Zerwin’s text, and it applies her theories to my classroom model. Hang tight! You will see my grading categories, how I plan on entering things into my grade book, and my new learning goals.

Whether you call quick writes your warmup, a focused writing prompt, writing into the day, or simply timed writing, a quick write has a range of possibilities that are just plain cool and useful in the English classroom. I adhere to the definition that Linda Reif uses in her book The Quickwrite Handbook: 100 Mentor Texts to Jumpstart Your Students' Thinking and Writing: “A quick write is a first draft response to a short piece of writing…” (3). Linda Reif uses other authors’ writing to spark ideas, but in my opinion, it can also be in the form of a question or another prompt to get students thinking. The three-minute quick write as a strategy is not new. It is a technique that published authors use, screenwriters, and classrooms young and old. This post is designed to help you revisit an old strategy and maybe weave in some new techniques to freshen it up a bit. If you are preparing the fall, it may be a perfect time to revisit your classroom weekly teaching routine.

The timing of three minutes is on purpose. It is just long enough to have a moment to think, but not enough time to really have a ton of delay that could cause disruptions in the classroom. I often will be able to put my response in my notebook and warn them just in time that they have a minute and a half left. The timing of this is “enough” time that it is not obtrusive to other activities in a day’s lesson plan. Think short and sweet, but just urgent enough that students will not have much time for hesitation in getting ideas down on paper.

I always end the first six weeks of school with narrative poetry. 1.) It is a mindset thing. I want to show the kids who don’t think they can write poetry that they indeed can write poetry. 2.) It is an excellent way to get to know students better. We may think we know each other after six weeks, but in reality, we have spent a lot of that time on testing and expectations. it is powerful to know our students and let our students know who we are as people. Cue Where I’m From Poems and I Am Poems. I use this form of poetry from George Ella Lyon each year to help build community and access important identity work. This post includes all of the assignment materials and my step-by-step process including mentor texts and a read-aloud.

The Third Coast Camp for Young Writers is an annual summer camp for young writers entering grades 3-8 that happens each year on the campus of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI. While planning for this year, my teacher partner Mrs. Roberts (Go see her at her teacher blog Literacy Adventures) already met to plan our sessions. I was going to do Animal Memoir writing with a mentor text of El Deafo by Cece Bell, and Mrs. Roberts was going to do science-themed writing sessions with the Science Comics series of graphic novels for kids. We had a plan back in February.

Then, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit our area, and we both navigated through emergency online learning, we were unsure that parents would want a virtual option at all for summer camp. We also were admittedly tired from online learning. After putting out a survey to our own students, their families, and former camp attendees, we got feedback that almost everyone wanted a virtual option for summer camp. So, we pulled together to develop a week-long adventure into writing called Camp Third Coast. See our promotional flyer here. This post is all about the planning of our virtual writing camp, and the lessons that I want to take with me into the fall teaching writing in an online environment. Spoiler Alert: The biggest lesson is that all of our students should we engaged in creative writing as much as possible-even in online learning formats.

I’m not sure I knew that summer burnout existed before this year. There are a ton of possible reasons as to why I am feeling this way. Perhaps, it is the residual burnout from spring online learning, the haphazard end to the school year, or now the impending question of what is to come of the fall. Maybe it is all of the above. Maybe it is more. As I wake up each day to uncertain conversations about what should take place versus what needs to take place and nobody seems to be in agreement with anybody else, I find myself doing a lot of listening and observing. I also find myself wondering how to plan ahead for what I know will be a hard school year this fall.

But, I am certain that this summer burnout is something that I know other teachers are dealing with as well. I see the posts from others each day. I carry many of the conversations with me as I speak with other families, parents, and teachers about what they think of the fall. Many are afraid. Many are overwhelmed. Many are just confused. Summertime is normally the teacher’s time to thrive. Even in the past if I chose to teach summer school, I would be writing every day. I would be reading tons of books, and I would be doing a lot of planning in the form of dreaming for the fall. I normally have a “summer stack” of books that I happily go through and think big in terms of changing how I do business or trying to be a better teacher.

But, I am tired. More than tired.

Feedback is how you know an adventure is complete. Even if it is in stages. I love feedback, specifically, I love critical feedback. I often will immediately scour through my surveys at the end of the year and look for areas that need improvement. I always feel warm and fuzzy from a child’s comment about me being nice, awesome, or their favorite teacher. That is the ultimate compliment. Because that means that I can single-handedly change a student’s day. These comments are on my surveys each year. However, I often find myself looking through the feedback for the points that sting a little or the ways to make my classroom better.

I look for… “It was boring.”

I look for… “I didn’t like when we did…”

I seek out the… “class went so slow when….”

When we stop improving, we stop growing and adapting. Engagement is the ultimate tool for feedback. Because in engagement, resides respect, safety, and compassion. Now, the end of the 2019-2020 school year felt a little different. There were so many variables out of our control as teachers. Just to name a few: Online learning, technology, fear and trauma associated with being quarantined, illness, racial and social disparities, homelessness, students with disabilities and ELLs facing learning from home, and more. Finally, with the protesting in response to the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and more, and the inability to talk about these issues face-to-face, my survey felt superficial. I knew what didn’t go right. But, I knew that the key was to still ask my students what they thought because their opinions matter. I finally got the courage up to look at their responses from the end of the year. This post is a report of my findings of perceptions as to me as a teacher, evaluations of face-to-face learning and online learning, and their overall journeys with their own reading this year. It is important to note that you will see 68 responses to my survey. I had 140 students this year, but the variables of online learning that made connecting with all students difficult, also presented a barrier to administering an end-of-year survey where all voices were heard. This is feedback in and of itself.

In the midst of everything lately, I have become laser-focused on the concept of my own comfort zone. This is not just a boundary of physical space, but also a mental periphery of my privilege that extends beyond the tone and color of my skin, my socioeconomic status, my personal education, access to resources and networks, and my formative years of experience. As a teacher, I have been thinking about the status of things that I have grown comfortable with for a long while. Because in my classroom, I am all things comfortable. I own that space because I have made it mine. I have filled it with two cups of love, one cup of understanding, a heaping mound of constantly learning new strategies and resources, and a dash of a look across the room that can say “Please, don’t try that same stuff with me today.” My classroom is where I often feel the most like me.

However, I wonder if that comfort zone is just a thing in my mind I have created to develop a sense of mastery. I am reminded in this process that there is no mastery when it comes to being an ally to my students who are Black, indigenous and people of color. There is only fighting against the comfort zone. While there are many things I disagree with about the system of education and my role as an educator, I have spent 10 years teaching and not much has changed.

Distance or online learning creates the opportunity for teachers to learn new ways to approach students. I have always loved educational technology, and I have to admit, getting excited about learning how to screencast, edit videos, and use technology to meet with students has been good for my student-soul. I created a video tutorial for how to create a journal vision board, put music to the background, and transitions, and you would have thought I was the next coder to grab a hold of a mouse and keyboard. It is a powerful thing to keep learning. And while we must remain open and shift our mindsets to remaining positive during school closures, the most powerful and important tool I have right now in my teacher bag is the student journaling assignment.

The move to online and distance learning has been a rollercoaster ride of emotions, feelings, and actions. I have simultaneously felt like I am not doing enough, and then in another moment, I am trying to tackle all of the things to make myself feel better, more productive. I am asking myself,

“Are you reading enough?”

“Are you writing enough?”

“Are you thinking enough about what matters? The work that has to be done when we go back?”

“Are you sleeping?”

All of these are check-ins with normal routines and behavior. However, we aren’t in a normal routine or behavior mode. This is something different. I have noticed that many of my first reactions to emails, news feeds, blog posts, and videos about distance learning come with “knee-jerk” reactions that make me feel well,...like a jerk. I started last week working purposefully to get myself out of negative reactions immediately, and then focus on the positive aspects of all situations.

During the course of the past month, I have watched other teachers and people in education take on distance learning with full force. What teachers are doing is powerful. The expectations and protocols to move online and the variances from district-to-district are also stifling. Some are being asked to do too much, other teachers not as much. The moral compass of all of this begs the question, what is right in all of this? My answer would be whatever is best for children and creates a positive response in both you and your online classroom. This blog post outlines how to use your journal to shift to positivity, and it uses many negative reactions as writing prompts to get you thinking about your own mindset.

Sometimes we need to make our own positivity.

Poetry has the power to be transformative, inspirational, and healing. Poetry is what I turn to when I find myself reluctant to read, or if I am having a bad day. It taps into the power of feelings, and most recently, the work I have done with graphic novels and novels-in-verse in my classroom has been the most impactful. Kids report at the end of the year that these two sets of activities are what stuck out to them as memorable, important, and meaningful. Especially during this time period, where many of us have found or are in the process of finding that our school year is cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we turn to the power of poetry. The work of teaching is now different in nature and in context. We turn to the ability to work remotely and still provide the same level of commitment and inspiration to our students. The buildings perhaps are closed, but the process of learning is still open. One thing I am turning to particular in the month of April is poetry. Arguably, we will need poetry as part of the process of healing long after this crisis is over. Yesterday, in my bullet journal plan-with-me post, I spent some time curating a personal collection of poems that made me excited about poetry. I think this is an important exercise to do at the beginning of this month and in the process of kicking off any poetry unit.

Go ahead and make your list now and come back to the rest of this post when you can. Really. Even if you aren’t a poetry fan, you might find some comfort and joy in the lines you read. Your list (hopefully) will get you excited, motivated, and ready to begin to think about how you want to teach poetry to your students.

Then, take what you need from this resource post. I have outlined my favorite poems to teach, my favorite teaching resources, 75+ collections of poetry, novels-in-verse, and picturebooks I love, and I have linked how I teach Where I’m From poems. Maybe you are the one who needs poetry right now. Maybe your students need the poems you will share. As we move forward through social distancing and a pandemic, let’s remember to come back to the power of words on the page as often as possible.

I went back and forth on creating this remote learning document and sending it out to families. I feel that students deserve to have time off with their families, but I also knew that a month away during the school year was an extensive amount of time to miss. What a time we are living in right now. Coronavirus or COVID-19 has taken the country by storm and in attempts to “flatten the curve,” schools have shut down. My own district is out for a month, including one week of spring break. It seems like everywhere I look people are posting ideas for online learning and remote learning. While I know that many of my families struggle with access to technology, many of my families do have resources and materials available. Even if this is in the form of a mobile phone or device. I finally came to the decision that if even if some of my students find these resources useful, I would be glad I put the list together. I wanted to send out a hyperdoc with links to valuable resources that can help allow learning to happen (or at least attempt to) while we are away. This whole issue brings up so many reflections.

As educators, what are we supposed to be taking away from this moment?

What flaws in the system are now clear when our buildings shut down?

What limitations are not being addressed that allow our children to learn when our buildings are up and running?

I am proud that my district will offer food drops, but nothing can replace the routine, the classroom, the learning, the engagement, and the opportunities. The inspiration for this post came from Jennifer Gonzalez from the Cult of Pedagogy and her post titled “How HyperDocs Can Transform Your Teaching.” It made the most sense to offer a hyperdoc that linked to valuable resources. This post will outline my letter to families, a suggested schedule, and 20+ strategies to reach online learners through remote systems.