Maybe it's just me, but I hate when my email inbox explodes the night before a test with last-minute questions from students. Don't get me wrong - I love that students are studying at all and are asking questions. However, it bugs me that: others could benefit from viewing my answer the questions are so last-minute, a clear sign of what I call "Procrastinitis" not all students even check their email in time to see my reply! Thus, after watching a colleague do his own version successfully, I started doing online review sessions in the evenings before midterms and final exams, and it's brought a lot of positives for us. ...

On social media and TpT, the most frequent question I receive is how I choose the order of topics when I teach grammar. Truthfully, my sequence of grammar instruction varies a bit from year to year, depending on what students already know. (Check out my grammar diagnostic tests one and two for that.) However, I’ve learned over the past seven years that the order matters more for some topics than others....

Almost all of my tutoring students in the last 10 years have made the same mistakes while taking the Reading portion of the ACT and SAT. They struggle with... ...

The first few weeks of a school year (or new semester), we have to learn way more than just students' names. In an increasingly data-driven world of education that wants teachers to quantify OR demonstrate growth over time, it's beneficial to get some baseline snapshots of what students know and can do. ...

I was desperate for a better way to teach grammar. On my end, I was overwhelmed with how much I needed to teach: how to get it all done and how to do so logically. For my students, I was concerned about their engagement (not tuning out or getting bored) AND how to ensure that they "got it". ...

Congrats! You found out you've been assigned (or “voluntold”) to teach an elective. Maybe it's a course taught during the school day, or perhaps it’s an after-school extracurricular. ...but, what happens when that elective isn't something YOU did as a student, or your college degree(s) didn't really prepare you to teach it? How does one survive and thrive in an elective class that you have the passion, but perhaps not the training, to start? Below are some tips to help you begin. Sara has taught speech/debate before and coaches an award-winning creative writing team. Julie Faulkner has taught journalism and yearbook for 10 years! ...

The good news : by senior year, many teens ARE good writers who can crank out a thoughtful essay that answers the prompt. The bad news : a majority of the rough drafts I see cross my desk (as a tutor) are really NOT submission ready. Not even close. While I don't pretend to speak on behalf of admissions officers here, my inner English teacher is cringing while reading my students' work, the drafts that are supposed to not only gain admission for them but should ideally also win scholarships and/or admission to honors programs (and the like). What's worse is that, at least in my area, my students are telling me three things: 1. My English teacher doesn't talk about admissions essays. We are on our own. 2. Yeah, we wrote essays for school, but there was only one short comment on it. My teacher says that (he/she) doesn't want to grade or judge my life. 3. I'm in an (AP/IB/honors) English class, so my teacher says we don't need help writing our ess......

As an ACT tutor, I hate hearing students, teachers, or parents say any of the following about an ACT or SAT essay: She's a good writer. She'll be fine . They write essays all the time . Yeah, I'm taking the writing test. It's just an essay, no big deal . Oh, the essay section changed in 2016? Didn't know that. How different is it? (*Facepalm*) ...

What if your next unit were self-grading and had students clamoring to work ahead? Yep, you read that right. Your next unit, whether it's skills or facts, could be presented to students in a visible trail of learning that compels them to keep moving forward. In fact, in our classroom, we're doing a game board system for GRAMMAR , and students are doing above the minimum to compete, succeed, and be creative. I've been slowly improving this system for five years in my classroom, and it has manifested into a really cool grammar program for my seventh and eighth graders. Now, I'm finally ready to share it with you. ...

If you're interested in outreach, real-world extensions of ELA, or character development, then you might be interested in random acts of kindness ! {Scroll down for pics.} I first did this project last year, during my unit on A Christmas Carol , when I wanted to talk to students about the importance of NOT being like Scrooge! Students couldn't decide how they felt about it at first, but in their reflections afterward, they were almost unanimously glad that they did it!  ...

Last school year, my co-teacher and I agreed to try a 30-Day Challenge with our class of eighth graders. ...

Yep - you read that right. I took the ACT at age 27. Yesterday. Voluntarily. Legally. I put on a hoodie and a headband to blend in with the natives (ha), and I sat in a classroom and took a proctored test (with a headache and sinus infection to boot, ugh). Some of my high school students, especially the seniors who took it one more time in the fall, have been claiming that the test has gotten "harder". There were rumors about the math and reading in particular. So, what's a teacher to do, other than take it for herself to make sure her teaching is still accurate? ...