If you love teaching in thematic units, you may already know that I do too! There are so many reasons that I love teaching with thematic units. Whether you use them once in a while or on a regular basis, it's great to have a list to come back to of some great thematic units [...]

I remember at some point during my educational training, thematic units went OUT... and so many teachers seemed relieved. At that point, with my lack of experience I didn't really mind either way. All I knew was that it made it easier for me to submit my subject units when they weren't really tied together. [...]

Literacy centers are one of my favorite times of the school day. Teaching reading is my passion and I want to keep students engaged in meaningful activities while I meet and confer with small groups of students.  One of my favorite word work centers is word building mats. These mats are so versatile. They have [...]

I love ALL THINGS STICKY NOTES! I don't know if I love them more, or if my students do. Typically if I want to snazz up a reading lesson, all I have to do to boost engagement is somehow involve a sticky note or two for my students. My tasks and organization became even more [...]

Although my maternity leave began almost 2 years ago (this seems impossible to believe), this post has been on my mind. In fact I have a whole set of posts planned out to share about how I planned for my maternity leave from my first grade classroom, but they slip away from my mind as [...]

Teaching reading is a huge passion of mine, and has always been really. Well , if I'm being honest, first it was a great mystery to me. I was afraid when I began my educational training that I would never be able to "teach" students how to read? Watching it come true as a first [...]

As the school year is off to a good start, I like to reflect upon and think about the ways that I use certain activities, or types of activities in my classroom. One of my favorite category of resources to create and use (and one that has always been a student favorite) is the color [...]

Teaching reading is one of my greatest passions, as you probably already know if you've been reading along. But as much as I love reading with and to my students... as much as I loved listening to discussions... I wasn't really sure how to balance writing good chapter questions. In the beginning I struggled with [...]

Recently I received an e-mail with an opportunity to work with a company called Innovation Press.  They send me a few books to create some resources for and each time, I have been absolutely in love with the teaching opportunities that these books open up! Note:This post contains affiliate links. As a part of the [...]

We've chatted before about the three step approach to implementing an individual behavior plan.  One of the things I had the hardest time wrapping my mind around was the concept of choosing a small goal, a really tiny measurable goal, when a child in my class may be totally out of control.  Let's call this [...]