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You're in the right place for action steps and take-aways if you're a busy Middle School ELA teacher who prefers personal family time over prepping for class. You want to teach with confidence while also leaving at a very decent time each day. On that note, welcome to the library where I only share the kind of recommendations + advice that'll uplevel your classroom without taking away from your personal life.
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Latest from the Blog
Poetry Unit Planning: Using an Immersive Poetry Experience
Do you want to teach poetry in a way that engages your students and immerses them in a poetry experience that lasts longer than just a random poetry activity? If so, then you’re in the right place! Creating an immersive, engaging poetry unit is exactly what I sat down to
Nonfiction Unit Planning: How to Plan Your Middle School ELA Nonfiction/Expository Unit
When it comes to nonfiction or expository texts, it’s not always the easiest type of unit to get your students excited about. It can be easy to sell fiction or drama to your students as it’s a way for them to travel to faraway lands and get wrapped up in
Short Story Fiction Unit Planning: How to Plan and Organize (Especially if You’re New to Middle School ELA)
If you’re a new 6th, 7th, or 8th Grade ELA Teacher looking to plan and organize a fiction unit, you’re in exactly the right place! Let’s take a look at the basic elements of a fiction or short story unit so you feel confident in what to teach when you’re
How to Build Relationships and Establish Procedures in Your Middle School ELA Classroom
In order to create a peaceful learning environment, it’s important for us as teachers to build positive relationships with their students. Establishing procedures and routines in the classroom can also help create a sense of predictability and security for students. The tips, tricks, and timeliness of this topic is merely
Classroom Management in Middle School: Tips and Tricks for a Successful Year
If you’re a middle school teacher, classroom management is key to having a successful year. It can be difficult to keep middle schoolers on track, but with the right tips and tricks, it can be done (without stress, begging, or selling your soul)! The tips, tricks, and timeliness of this
Creating Your Classroom Management Plan: The Teacher’s How-to Guide
Really? A “classroom management plan” for a Middle School ELA Teacher?” Yes, absolutely! Thinking ahead, being proactive, and knowing what you’ll do or say in certain classroom situations is how you’ll stay in control, remain calm, and feel confident during all those pop-up classroom management issues that your school doesn’t
Social Emotional Learning: Promoting Connection with Students and Parents
With neverending to-do lists, it’s overwhelming to think about how to incorporate social-emotional learning (SEL) into our classrooms. With so many mounting responsibilities, how can we possibly begin to tackle the countless needs of our students? We realize this is a big job. Like, a really big job. However, we
Mini-Lessons for The First Week of Class
When we think about what to teach during that very first week of school, it’s not as much about the academics as it is about teaching the routines, procedures, and expectations that are crucial for a smooth-running classroom. Mini-lessons that first week are really just the tools through which I
Reading and Writing for the First Week of Middle School ELA Class
What to Teach Your First Week of Class Planning your first week of class–whether you’re a seasoned teacher looking for a change or a teacher new to the middle school ELA classroom–is laid out right here, day by day for you! Whether you have a 45 minute class or a
Second Day of School Lesson Plan for Middle School ELA
What to Teach After Your First Day of Class If you’re here with me, then you probably already have a pretty good handle on what you want your very first day of Middle School English Language Arts class to look like. You’ve probably already read the article where I describe
First Day Lesson Plans for Middle School ELA
What to Teach Your First Day of Class Planning your first day of class–whether you’re a seasoned teacher looking for a change or a teacher new to the middle school ELA classroom–is laid out right here for you! Whether you have a 45 minute class or a 90 minute block
Syllabus + Meet the Teacher Ideas for Your First Week of Class
Middle School ELA students are going to have sooo much information thrown at them during the first week of school, not to mention during the first day of all their classes. Imagine (or remember?) your time as a student and every 45 minutes or every 60+ minutes you’re changing classes:
How to Flip Your Middle School Grammar Instruction: 3 Simple Strategies to Use Right Now!
You know you need (and want!) to engage your middle school ELA/R students grammar instruction, but you’re stuck at: >> How to teach grammar consistently (there’s just no time!) >> Whether to teach grammar in isolation or not (forget religion and politics—this is what really divides people!) >> What to
Elements of Fiction and Short Stories Mini-Lessons for Middle School English Language Arts
Where to even begin (or end, or support, or extend) your elements of fiction / short story unit in Middle School English Language Arts & Reading . . . I’ll share my favorite mini-lesson topics with you here so you can think about what concepts you might want to include
No-Prep Ways to Teach Grammar in Middle School English Language Arts Class
We say “grammar” but really, that’s an umbrella under which we have things like usage, mechanics, parts of speech, sentence structure, etc. The word grammar covers all of it (that may seem obvious, but if you’ve been teaching math for 10 years and you just got “voluntold” to teach English
