It can be challenging at the end of the school year for a teacher to keep students engaged and learning while matching their level of anticipation for summer break. This past school year a third-grade teacher came to discuss an… Read More ›
co-teaching
Speed Dating with Nonfiction Books
Every year I collaborate with the 11th-grade English teachers on a nonfiction independent reading project. The goal is to increase student agency and create excitement about literature. While many juniors initially express an aversion to reading, they often show an… Read More ›
Introducing High Schoolers to Research Through Webquests
Research is one of the most valuable skills we can teach learners. Because of the volume of information available online, it’s easy for children (and adults) to fall into the trap of believing everything they read. Before we go too… Read More ›
My Favorite Collaborative Lesson: Animal Crossings in 2nd Grade
In my school, we use a hybrid schedule in the library. This means that all lessons taught in first through third grade are done in collaboration with the homeroom teacher. The goal is to teach the library and… Read More ›
Teaching Personal Narrative Writing
Every person has a story to tell. That’s as true for children as it is for established writers. Most high school teachers are familiar with the college essay crunch that starts at the end of junior year, heats up in… Read More ›
4 Levels of Collaboration for Teachers and Librarians
As school librarians, we know that collaboration is a large part of our role. In the AASL National School Library Standards to collaborate is to “work effectively with others to broaden perspectives and work toward common goals.” We also understand… Read More ›
My Favorite Collaborative Lesson: Birds in Preschool
Our preschool is all based on play and authentic learning opportunities. The objectives in preschool can be taught through a variety of themes. So the teachers choose the themes to teach these objectives from what the children are talking about… Read More ›
Where Do You Get Your Ideas for Lessons and Projects?
When collaborating with teachers, I like to have a toolkit of ideas as we brainstorm ways to design lessons and assessment activities. Like authors get writer’s block, I also get “stuck” thinking of new ideas to implement with classes. The… Read More ›
My Favorite Collaborative Lesson: Story Problems with Scratch Jr.
I find that collaboration between homeroom teachers and the school librarian can happen naturally in subjects like language arts and social studies, but other subjects like math can be a bit tricky to fit together. However, every once in a… Read More ›
Bringing the Community Together with a Book Discussion
There were many issues that people disagreed about this past school year. What staff, students, and parents had in common, though, were high levels of stress. When an English teacher colleague approached me about co-hosting a community book discussion, I… Read More ›