It’s not the most popular activity in my classroom, but I believe teaching close reading is a vital skill for my students to feel comfortable and confident in their ability to closely read, understand, and analyze a text. If you’re looking to bring your students to the next level in reading comprehension and analysis, read on for tips and tricks. What is close reading? First, it’s important to know that close reading is not a summary of the main points and it’s not a personal response. It’s actually more in-depth than that. When you close read, you should be focused on analysis and interpretation. Students should pick apart the work. This is the time to uncover layers, make inferences, and look for specific textual evidence. It’s more than a reader response. It is understanding what the author is doing. Why were these words chosen? Why described in this way? Why is this interesting (or not)? Notice that, while it is important that students acknowledge the need for tapping into prio...

You’ve completed your course work, passed all of your tests, and finished all of your paperwork, and now the time has finally come. You are about to begin student teaching. A million different emotions are probably swirling through your head as you begin anticipating and daydreaming about what this experience will be like. What will your students be like? What will your master teacher be like? What will your routine be like? And most worrisome of all: Will you thrive or fail? More than likely, you will probably find your student teaching experience a little anticlimactic. While being a student teacher will help prepare you for your career as an educator, there really is no substitute for learning on your own two feet the first few years in your own classroom. So how can you make the most of your student teaching experience? 1. Get as involved as you can. Attend meetings. Go to school functions. Help with any extracurricular activities, clubs, organizations, and sports...

Whether you just signed your first teaching contract, are a seasoned educator, or you are still working toward your earning your teaching license, it is never too early (or late) to start building your classroom library. In fact, the earlier you start building your classroom library, the easier the task will be. I believe that classroom libraries are an essential part of every single secondary classroom, whether you teach English language arts or not. Teenagers need to have easy access quality, interesting books: books that they will actually want to read. Even if you don’t have an independent reading program attached to your curriculum, it is important for your students to know you value reading and that you have a plethora of books just waiting for them. While the easiest way to build a classroom library would simply be to buy every.single.title.available, that isn’t the most economical way to start your collection, especially if you are just starting your teaching career. ...

One thing I love is scoring a great deal! When my husband and I moved into our first house, I was able to purchase the Dyson Animal vacuum for mere dollars out of pocket by shopping a sale and using Best Buy gift cards that DirecTV gave us for setting up service. Teachers love scoring great deals too. And in honor of Teacher’s Appreciation Day , I am going to let you in on three little (maybe not so secret) ways to save money on quality teaching resources. If you haven’t visited Teachers Pay Teacher yet, you should definitely bookmark this site. You will be able to find quality, engaging teacher-created resources that are far better than resources regurgitated by big textbook publishing companies. Here are three tried and true ways to save money and get great teaching resources that will help you win at teaching. 1. Follow Sellers Follow sellers you like on multiple sites. On TpT, you will see a green star that is clickable. Click that green star to follow that...

The end of the school year is quickly approaching. In fact, many teachers started their summer countdowns weeks ago! As the days slowly tick by and as summer begins to creep (ever, so slowly, it seems) in, there are several things you can do now that will save your time and sanity at the end of the year! 1. Stay Organized We’ve all heard of senioritis, but have you heard of summer-teacheritis? It’s real. Right now it is so easy to let papers pile up, assignments go ungraded for days, and let the outbox accumulate more papers than the US Post Office. However, if you manage to stay organized now, you will save so much time during that last week of school. Organization Checklist - grade any ungraded papers at by the end of the week - pass back graded papers on Monday - recycle (or file) papers that you will not use for the rest of the year - keep a “to grade” and a “graded folder” on your desk, and try to empty them as often as possible 2. Don’t Grade Everything  ...