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". ...

Sara : It's not easy to surrender control and trust middle school students to make decisions that will impact your curriculum, classroom, or content.  But squeezing too tightly to your control can also choke their learning, especially in middle school, a time when students need to learn independent problem-solving.  Writing with me today is Darlene Anne ( the ELA Buffet ), a fellow middle school ELA teacher. ...

Determined to coach your students into a growth mindset? Want them to value learning, and not just grades, absorbing your feedback and persevering to the finish line? Well, as with most educational theories, fellow ELA teacher Mrs. Spangler in the Middle and I have found that there are some hurdles to getting middle school (and even high school) students into a growth mindset that actually sticks (and doesn't just sound good). The short answer: Encouraging a growth mindset in a vague way only helps to a point without addressing a student's underlying reason why he or she doesn't want to persevere . ...

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. ...