By now, all of us have heard the term fake news. It’s become another overused phrase, insidious in how it sticks like a bad smell. Yet its very stickiness is what makes it such a useful rhetoric device…. Read More ›
co-teaching
Surviving the Wild of Middle School by Making It FUN
Supporting Curriculum and Adding FUN Each year seventh-grade students in my school read two class novels that focus on survival skills and wild terrain. Students read Call of the Wild by Jack London and Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen… Read More ›
Using Research to Find a New Chair for Baby Bear
If you have ever read Goldilocks and the Three Bears you know that Baby Bear’s chair ends up in pieces. The sad thing is his chair never gets fixed. Below you will find how students in preschool use the research… Read More ›
Order Up: A Monthly Menu for Collaboration
Two years ago, the library switched from a completely fixed schedule to a hybrid model. Students in preschool and kindergarten currently come at a scheduled time each week. First and second grade come for a fifteen-minute weekly check out. All… Read More ›
Seniors and Deep Dive Research
Go Big or Go … Have you ever started an ambitious project that would either be a smashing success or an embarrassing failure? This week I am embarking on a project that will be a true challenge in logistics, energy,… Read More ›
Help the Teachers Teach
How to help the willing co-teachers There are many ways to help classroom teachers, but the ultimate has to be a co-teaching situation. In my experience, teaching research and library skills in a vacuum is not effective. Students may learn… Read More ›
Animal Research Meets Reading, Writing, and Flipgrid
Animal research projects are common in the elementary world. The second-grade teachers came to me and said they were going to an animal research project. The question became how to allow their students to have ownership of their learning… Read More ›
Showing Students the Power of Their Words with Mentor Texts
A second-grade teacher shared that she was having friend drama in her classroom, specifically the use of unkind words. She was looking for some mentor texts that she could share with her class that would allow her to address the… Read More ›
When Reading, Research, and Coding Join Forces
In the field of education there is constant change. There is always something new we should be teaching or popular trends that find their way into the classroom. For me, I have always been willing to try something new as… Read More ›
Journey to a Flexible Schedule: Part 2
The great John Dewey once said, “We do not learn from experience…we learn from reflecting on experience.” Reflecting is what I am doing every day this year as I move forward using a flexible schedule with first- and second-grade students…. Read More ›