Happy March! I'm going to be honest... I find a reason to love every month, especially when it comes to fun teaching topics and themes and March is no exception. From Read Across America, to St. Patrick's Day, to SPRING! This month, I have some free resources I think could save you time and your [...]

It's time for a March roundup of some of my favorite resources! I create these roundup post because I know that you are super busy, and it's hard to find the time to search for new fun things to do when there are like 1000 other things you can be doing. So here it goes, [...]

Fairy tales are seriously one of my favorite teaching units, especially for early elementary students. Not only do they usually follow a nice problem-solution story line, but there are SO many fun spin off type stories that make teaching and comparing versions so much fun. From Jack and the Beanstalk to Little Red Hen, these [...]

As a classroom teacher I was always looking for fun ways to engage students with technology in the classroom, especially when I was meeting with small groups during guided math lessons. My biggest gripe with many of the apps or activities students were working on, was that the activities were almost always addressing very general [...]

Teaching classroom rules and expectations has always been a SUPER important part of launching the new school year positively. I always spend time setting collaborative classroom rules , practicing collaborative problem solving, and building classroom routines. This year feels a little bit different, with possibilities of varied, changing, and new visions of what your classroom might look [...]

If your classroom has some social distancing precautions this year, teaching classroom rules may be a little bit different. You can still follow the steps for setting collaborative rules, even when the rules look a little bit different. For example, sharing is something my class normally encourages with our classroom expectations, however this year, sharing [...]

Teaching classroom rules in my classroom has always been one of the fun parts of our back to school season. After taking the steps to collaboratively set the rules, it's fun to put together some lessons so you can explicitly teach the examples and non examples of what's expected. Check out these fun ways to [...]

Come with me for a moment into a first grade classroom.  A first grader sits at her desk holding a book. She stares at the words, but nothing comes to mind.  She says "Reading is impossible." How do you respond? Really think about it. What would you say? Do you tell her "You're right, let's [...]

As I write this times are uncertain. It's hard to imagine what's coming next for teachers and students in this very different Back to School 2020 season. Uncertainty often builds anxiety and worry, and for me, activity helps to overcome all those feelings. The problem is that it's also difficult to know what is worth [...]

Communication has always been paramount in education. Between colleagues, between teachers and students, and between school and home. Now, more than ever, communication is key. Especially in order to share expectations and details about changes that are unique to the times. I've heard from teachers that during distance learning it was often tough to keep [...]