Thank you to all who hopped on over and followed our blogs and TPT Stores last weekend! Your participation in this little event was awesome! We do have a winner to announce Drumroll please…… Teachingisagift McKay – your resources and Amazon gift code are on the way! Congratulations! Thanks to everyone who took the time [...]

Welcome to Kristy, from 2 Peas and a Dog, my guest blogger for today. Thanks again for such an awesome idea, Kristy. Enjoy folks! *** Need a strategy to improve student achievement? Have you tried Bump It Up Boards? They are a great visual way to help your students self monitor their achievement.     How [...]

In another post I just got a really great question about using the 6+ 1 Traits of Writing and how they fit in the common core. With so much attention being paid to the reading aspects of the CCSS, it’s a great change to have questions about writing!

I had an excellent Professional Development Day yesterday, on assessing writing. I’ve got so much work to do this weekend now! Don’t you just love it when that happens? You attend a PD session and by the time you get to the end, you have more questions than answers? Well, that’s the kind of afternoon that [...]

I never ask my students the “What street did the character live on?” type of questions. I wouldn’t say that they’re a waste of time, but students can just go back to the text and put their finger on the answer. Fairly straightforward.  Most – I’d say 99% of the time, I try to focus [...]

My students are very vocal and energetic this year. Many are hands-on learners as well, and they love activities where they can get out of their seats. Rather than fight this, I’ve been trying to embrace it and to draw on those strengths and learning preferences. Well, Christmas is quickly approaching and you know what that means! [...]

After Sandy: Seven Storm Idioms - http://goo.gl/RvcTb – Use current events to introduce some storm-related idiom. The Mathematics of Writing - http://goo.gl/5fw44 - “Language is messy. Maths on the other hand is neat and ordered. If algebra makes sense to you, it is a realm of certainties. So, can English harness some of this logic and precision? ...

I know that my students are more motivated to write when they know it’s for a “real life” audience – not just me! I’d be the same way, honestly. So far this year, I’ve been conscious of trying to provide my students with real audiences for their writing, making the revision process much less painful and [...]

I’ve been getting lots of traffic on my “Freebies” page from blog followers and visitors. It occurred to me, though, that maybe not everyone has looked beyond the homepage of Lessons From The Middle.  I just had a peek at the Middle School Freebies collection that I started a while back, and I noticed that [...]

We just had our 2 day, Annual Teachers’ Convention. The sessions were really fabulous and I feel totally energized – and the weekend’s not even here yet! I just need some time, now, to reflect on the messages of the presenters and figure out how to incorporate them into my classroom. More on all of that in [...]