“My students spend all this time on word work and they still spell everything wrong in their writing! They aren’t transferring their phonemic awareness training and spelling words to their real work.”

Sometimes it seems like we do all this phonemic awareness and word work prep to get it to be memorable for our students, and they STILL struggle with transferring the skills and knowledge. This is not a new dilemma. Teachers have struggled with this issue forever.

As long as we teach spelling and phonics only in isolation, transfer of these skills will continue to be an issue. There are teachers that effectively teach all of their spelling and phonics inside of their writing lessons and conferring. It takes great planning, practice and skill to do so. I would call it the gold standard as it’s the most efficient and effective way to teach these things. But, it’s not the only way.

Here’s the thing. Whether we’re working on a plan toward that...

Asking good questions and citing evidence is essential in helping students think deeply about their reading.

Students learn to ask better questions by example. If we want our students to ask good questions of themselves and think deeper about their reading, we have to model that in our lessons. One of the things I teach students of all ages, even Kindergarteners, is to answer with their evidence ready.

Here’s an example of a conversation with primary students about Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse. The conversation is happening just after reading the part where Lilly is heading out of the classroom after slipping her picture of Mr. Slinger into his bag.

My goal here is that students learn to observe, think critically and cite evidence while enjoying a fun text. Eventually, I’ll expect them to transfer these skills to other types of reading. But, using stories that capture students’ imagination and sense of fun is the first step in the process.

Here’s the...

It’s fall and that means that parent conferences are just around the corner. Wouldn’t it be fabulous if you could go into each student’s parent conference feeling prepared and confident?

I know how hard you work and how much you care about each of your students. Take the time to prepare a bit for parent conferences so your families will have no doubt about your hard work and caring heart as well.

So what do we need to do to have successful conferences? Prepare an overall plan, prep student details, rehearse and understand parents' expectations. Think of conferences as an opportunity to build relationships, share information and create a plan for moving forward.

FIVE THINGS EVERY TEACHER NEEDS TO DO TO BE READY FOR CONFERENCES. 

1. Decide: What are you hoping to accomplish? What is the purpose of your conferences?

2. Create a data form for each child - partially filled out (testing data, class time observations...)

3. Collect work samples and behavior...

“Everything seems so important that I can’t say no to my principal. But, I literally can’t do one more thing. There just isn’t enough time in my day. I’m exhausted and stressed out.” That’s what a client told me last week (and it’s only September).

I was working with a teacher who felt like her administrator wasn’t understanding that there simply isn’t an extra second left in her schedule. It’s not a new struggle. We’re all trying our hardest to meet the demands on our time and still give our best to our students. There is simply not enough time in the day to do everything that gets thrown on our plates.

Do you ever feel like your admin, parents or even your own family don’t fully understand how hard you work as a teacher?

Does it seem like everyone thinks you should help them out or volunteer because you get off work at 3:00? You know the drill… “You’re just a teacher. Working until...

Remembering what we have learned is ever the struggle in school and in life. As teachers, we never set out to simply check a box once we have taught a concept or skill. We want our students to be a able to recall and use the information in the future.

Here are 3 simple ways you can do that.

Mixed Practice

The goal of mixed practice is to mix up the types of problems or examples as we study so the brain has to work harder.

For example:

• Math - Do different types of math problems on the same topic all mixed in together. Don’t study all one type and then move on to all of another. Mix them up. This challenges us to both recognize the type of problem and how to solve it.

• Language Arts - When practicing recognition of parts of speech, we mix up our practice with each type. We can’t do all verbs and then move on to adjectives. Challenging ourselves to identify each part of speech (and how it relates to the others) in the same sentence instead of finding verbs in multiple...

I'm not usually a quitter, but in this instance... I quit!

Quite a long time ago, I quit sending home reading logs and asking parents/students to time their reading. I've never regretted that decision. Reading at home is expected but runs on an honor system. I don't need parents or students stressing over reading time or hating reading because of having to keep track. Reading should be a joy, not a chore.

I have found that students who have been well-matched with books and have a teacher who instills a joy of reading will read. That's my job. I have to be the "book detective" to find the right books for each student. Students are going to get plenty of reading time at school because I build it into our day. So, I look at reading at home is an exciting bonus.

I encourage reading at home and tell families I expect students to read. I give families a list of suggestions for getting students to read willingly outside of school. We all know it will benefit them hugely....

How memorable is your word work?

We all do word work with our students in elementary grades.

Whether that looks like spelling words, phonemic awareness or something else isn't the point. Word Work can differ from classroom to classroom and still be effective. There isn't one activity that is the perfect way. I also know, there's not a single teacher out there who plans activities not caring if students remember the learning long-term.

So knowing we care deeply about our students' long-term retention, how do we increase the odds of our students remembering what they practice in Word Work? From my experience, here's what I know works really well. 

3 Tips for Memorable Word Work

• Make it sensory. The more senses we use the better the memory is embedded.

• Make it fun. Studies show that fun, silly and/or surprising things wake the brain up and draw attention to what's right in front of us.

• Make it active. Movement [appropriate to the task] helps people of all...

There are certain steps to training students well, so our classrooms almost run themselves. 

Whether you are at the beginning of the year or are completely changing your routines because they simply aren't working (it happens to all of us), there are a lot of systems to learn. Start by prioritizing the systems you need in place immediately. Teach the most important ones the first day.

On the second day, review all of the systems learned on Day 1 and practice again. Add in anything you really need in place as long as your students are doing well with the first set of systems taught. Take a break from new learning on the third and fourth days. Just review. On the fifth day, you can add in a couple of new systems as long as your students are doing well with the others. Continue until everything is in place. Review regularly throughout the year. 

If your students are not doing well with your systems: reteach and practice. Have the students that are sabotaging your systems...

Once the school year gets going, some years I start to feel off kilter, out of sync.

Do you ever feel like everyone else seems to have it all together and you are playing catchup all the time? Yeah. That's the feeling. It's so easy to get there after the hustle and excitement of prepping for and starting a new school year. The hard part is getting back on track. 

As you head into your school year, it's easy to get derailed by the details and lose your way.

We spend tons of time getting our classrooms ready for students. By the time the first actual week of school ends, we often feel ready for a break. I know that sounds crazy, but you know what I mean. Think about how you feel after that first week - physically and emotionally drained. Right?! As the first month goes by, we can start to feel a bit scattered and overwhelmed (honeymoon is over). While it seems so early in the year to feel that way, the truth is reality and the details of classroom life have a habit of...

Every summer I clean out and purge all of my books. It's a difficult task because I love them all. Many books are like good friends. But, I have limited real estate on the shelves. Sometimes I need to make room for some new finds that fulfill a teaching purpose or need for students better than an older book. Sometimes I have an older book that does the best job for me, so I get rid of a newer one. Hard choices, but necessary. 

Part of what I am doing is staying focused in my purpose in teaching and coaching. Having too much can be overwhelming and decision making becomes harder. Being thoughtful in my library makes me more efficient and directed. 

How do you choose the books you teach with and what deserves shelf space in your teaching library?

There are so many wonderful picture books coming out every year. It can be a bit overwhelming. However, we need to remember there are older books that are just as wonderful. Perhaps it's time to walk away from the next shiny thing...