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Student Scribe Posts
Go to any grocery store parking lot in Germany, and you will never…and I mean never…see any stray shopping carts rattling along in the wind or parked in the hedges. Every carriage is always tucked back...
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Video Reboots
This week I spent my writing time updating videos I lost when my YouTube account was deactivated. I still have more videos to remake (and new ones to create), but it feels good to begin piecing this...
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Animoto Tips and Tricks
Animoto makes you look good…really good. Their simple interface makes creating professional quality slideshows soooooooo easy. If you don’t know about this site, go there now. You can get started...
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Battle of the Gods: Introduction to Mythology Lesson
For the past few weeks, my grade 6 students and I have been sailing the Nile in a felucca, learning about powerful Egyptian pharaohs by exploring monuments of the ancient world. I cannot take credit...
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No Dead Fish: Teaching Students to Write Effective Introductions
Dead Fish Handshakes are a huge pet peeve of mine. You offer your hand in greeting and the other person returns a grip that is downright soggy, their hand flopping in yours like a lifeless cod. It’s...
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Teaching Metaphors and Similes: Make a Game of It
For students, learning about metaphors and similes can sometimes feel like doing taxes on April 14. Or taking your daily dose of cod liver oil poured over bran flakes. Or picking blueberries under a...
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Quizlet: Crowdsourcing Vocabulary
I am jealous of my computer; it never feels stress. I do…way too often. And, way too often my stress is related to my inefficiency at providing timely, specific feedback to my students. Don’t get me...
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Wikis as Textbooks
Is it just me? Every time I hear WIKIS I think about wookies. Let’s be honest. Wikis are ugly. At least the wikis I make are not sleek and arresting in a visual sense. Yet, I use wikis in a variety of...
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Interactive Video (Part One): Flipping at TED-Ed
You, like me, have spent a fair amount of time watching on-line videos. Who can blame us? When we need a break from grading, routines, or vacuuming, lovely owls, talking dogs, or five people playing...
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A “Typical” Day in a 1:1 Classroom (Part Two)
Robin working with his students I love to know when my posts are “landing” or not, so please comment if you find this line of reflection helpful. When I sat down to record my thoughts on how teaching...
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Mini-essays: Go Small to Get Big Results
450 words are usually enough to communicate effectively, even in a blog post. Of course, bigger is not always better…or easier. Thinking back on my schooling, however, I always encountered a direct...
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Teaching Theme: The Red Tree
click the image to read more about this book My very first department chair regularly read favorite books to his classes. He wasn’t a snob, either. He reveled in good writing, regardless of genre or...
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T.V. as Text: Secret Millionaire Essay
I will not shock fellow English teachers when I write that most of my students watch television more often than they read. I’m not complaining. I actually think the current generation of teenagers...
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My Mustache Was Made in China
This most excellent fake mustache was made were most everything seems to be made…China. I, like you, buy things without ever really thinking about their origins. In this case, I just thought it might...
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Do Your Students’ Work
When teaching AP or IB English, one of the most useful things I did each year was to write at least one of the essays I assigned my students. I would select a textual response prompt I had never seen...
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Paper Airplanes for Freedom: Who Cares?
Most teachers would probably naturally intuit this, but carting 20 students to downtown Boston so they may throw paper airplanes at strangers is probably not a good idea. Too many things could go...
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27 Million Dots (or Why Design Thinking Is Worth the Extra Effort)
As I sat in line waiting to buy some blue paint and Goo-b-gone, the time creeping past 8:00 p.m., I thought, “Does any of this really have anything to do with English class?” This year I began my...
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