Apple Blossom Teachers

Top 3 Tips to Maximize your Summer PD: A system for your notes, a system for your files, and a system to keep track of how well (or not!) the new ideas work when you try them! These are my top 3 tips to get the most out of the amazing summer learning you have planned.

And speaking of summer learning, are you ready to join me for a one-day virtual LIVE workshop? The Upper Elementary Engagement Academy is coming this July. Together, we will design YOUR student-centered classroom to increase engagement, spark motivation, and level up learning! For all the details, visit AppleBlossomTeachers.com/summer

Ready to jump into some summer learning right now? Grab the FREE on-demand video training: 5 Lasting Ways to Increase Student Engagement in Upper Elementary

🔗 Links and resources from this episode:

• Episode 33: Reflecting with purpose
• MonaMath Summer Collaborative
• FREE Summer Reflections Guide for Teachers
• Grab the FREE virtual training: 5 Lasting Ways to Increase Student Engagement in Upper Elementary

Got a burning teaching question? Send your Curriculum Conundrum to me here, or just DM me over on instagram @appleblossomteachers. Can't wait to support you!

Teacher Summer Priorities: Join me in a more casual episode as I share a little behind-the-scenes of the summer reflection process we've been chatting about. If you need a little inspiration or camaraderie, this is the episode for you!

Looking for something a little more actionable? Grab the FREE on-demand video training: 5 Lasting Ways to Increase Student Engagement in Upper Elementary

🔗 Links and resources from this episode:

• Episode 33: Reflecting with purpose
• MonaMath Summer Collaborative
• FREE Summer Reflections Guide for Teachers
• Grab the FREE virtual training: 5 Lasting Ways to Increase Student Engagement in Upper Elementary

Got a burning teaching question? Send your Curriculum Conundrum to me here, or just DM me over on instagram @appleblossomteachers. Can't wait to support you!

Welcome to "Choose-your-own-adventure" summer learning edition! Whether it's organization and planning, instruction in specific content areas, or even taking your teaching to the next level, here are some recommendations.

Use the guide below to quickly find what you need, or listen to the full episode so you know what else is available when you need it. I scratched the surface on why these ones made the curated list, so feel free to DM me on Instagram @appleblossomteachers for more info on any of the resources I recommended!

📍Choose your own summer PD adventure: Use this to find what you need most!

• (4:25) Curate your own strategies to try.
• (7:00) Time-management, organization, planning, productivity, and solid pedagogy foundations
• (11:30) Increasing student engagement
• (16:10) Building a strong classroom community
• (18:00) Reading instruction (decoding, comprehension, and independent reading motivation)
• (22:25) Writing instruction (author's craft, writer's workshop, grammar and spelling)
• (30:10) Math instruction (student discourse, math mindset, conceptual understanding, number-sense focused games and activities)
• (38:15) Differentiation (accessibility & inclusion, learning disabilities, gifted instruction, reading differentiation, supporting English Learners)
• (42:10) Science instruction (understanding shifts in NGSS, webinars for teachers and students)
• (43:55) Social studies instruction (systems and structures, resources for engagement)
• (46:05) Arts integration (elements of art, principles of design, upper grade projects, content connections)
• (50:01) Beyond core content: EdTech, family involvement, extracurriculars, community connections

🔗 Links and resources from this episode:

• Episode 33: Reflecting with purpose
• Writing Instagram Guides
• MonaMath Summer Collaborative
• FREE Summer Reflections Guide for Teachers
• Grab the FREE virtual training: 5 Lasting Ways to Increase Student Engagement in Upper Elementary

Loved this episode? It would make my day to read your review, and can help more teachers discover the podcast!

Have you ever come back to that one week of teacher prep time feeling like it's just NOT enough to really help you mentally and instructionally plan for a solid year? Then once we get into the day-to-day hustle, it's impossible to catch up, let alone get ahead! This leads to that slow-burning-candle vibe, which ain't it if we want to stay passionate and be our best teacher selves.

The solution? Intentionally plan for how you will rest, recharge, reset, and refine your teacher self this summer. Grab a notepad or the free notetaking guide, and let's get into it!

💻 Looking for simple ways to take learning from ROTE to REAL? Grab the free video training here, plus a print-and-go planning template you can use tomorrow!

📍 The Navigator: Use this to find what you need most!

• (2:15) What am I scrapping from this year? What am I continuing? What do I want to try that I didn't this year?
• (6:45) Major teacher-life update!!
• (8:05 ) Questions to help you REFLECT on this year's strengths & struggles, and set some plans for RESTING & RECHARGING
• (12:29) What do you want to RESET or REFINE to help yourself feel more confident, or have more effective or efficient systems next year?

🔗 Links and resources from this episode:

• FREE Summer Reflections Guide for Teachers
• Grab the FREE virtual training: 5 Lasting Ways to Increase Student Engagement in Upper Elementary

Loved this episode? It would make my day to read your review, and can help more teachers discover the podcast!

Don't forget to submit your Curriculum Conundrum at appleblossomteachers.com/mycc, and subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an answer!

It can be such a great feeling when our kids are writing solid paragraphs or essays, using the fun little acronyms or mnemonic devices we've supported them with. But just like learning to ride a bike with training wheels, it's not until those extra supports are taken off that you're truly challenged with applying your skills. Today, we are chatting all about teaching writing without a formula.

💻 Looking for more ways to take learning from ROTE to REAL? Grab the free video training here, plus a print-and-go planning template you can use tomorrow!

📍 The Navigator: Use this to find what you need most!

• (2:15) How to help your students access higher order thinking skills by solving a campus problem (P.S. I thought of an idea mid-recording, and I'm totally trying it next week!)
• (8:00) Spend less time on the instruction up front - more time on the applications of higher order thinking skills, layering the content instruction within that
• (10:40) How a wine company made me realize we need to give our students more variety on how information can be presented (this one's just a teacher resource for inspiration!)
• (13:40) 5 common keys to increasing student engagement (one includes bringing Jeff Kinney and Aaron Reynold's' presentations into our classroom!)

🔗 Links and resources from this episode:

• Grab the FREE virtual training: 5 Lasting Ways to Increase Student Engagement in Upper Elementary
• Read my Edutopia article about the 5 authentic audiences that will motivate your upper grade writers.
• Free sample pages from Wendy Conklin's Strategies for Developing Higher-Order Thinking Skills in Grades 3-5
• Amy's @theuniqueclassroom Animal Shelter persuasive paragraphs

Loved this episode? It would make my day to read your review, and can help more teachers discover the podcast!

Don't forget to submit your Curriculum Conundrum at appleblossomteachers.com/mycc, and subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an answer!

Students who are BEGGING for more writing time? Yes, please! One easy key to increasing writing engagement and motivation is adding in an authentic audience.

Here's why you need to be leveraging this strategy, plus real 3rd - 6th grade project ideas from no additional prep all the way to the big leagues, major audience productions.

💻 Looking for more ways to take learning from ROTE to REAL? Grab the free video training here, plus a print-and-go planning template you can use tomorrow!

📍 The Navigator: Use this to find what you need most!

• (3:00) How I layered 4 disciplines in one skatepark project to maximize our class time
• (7:50) What are authentic audiences, and why are they helpful?
• (9:12) Engagement and motivation…are those the same?
• (12:30) Why this strategy is ideal for natural differentiation and instructional support for every learner
• (14:10) Gifted teacher pet peeve soapbox: our gifted and advanced learners need and deserve to have true opportunities to stretch their learning muscles as their peers, and more of the same work AIN'T IT!!
• (15:28) Higher order thinking skills are not often accessed in our teacher manuals, but here's how to fix it
• (21:05) Critical thinking vs. creative thinking
• (22:11) Let's jump into over a dozen actual PROJECT IDEAS FROM REAL UPPER ELEMENTARY CLASSROOMS! These are based on the 5 levels of authentic audiences in this Edutopia article.
• (37:07) My friend Mandy's epic 6th grade kindness crew that's been running for over 5 years!
• (38:40) Amy @theuniqueclassroom's 3rd grade persuasive paragraph activity for their local animal shelter
• (40:00) My friend Kayla's awesome marketing pitch project - Shark Tank style
• (41:45) Why this is also a great approach for embedded SEL lessons & life skills
• (43:50) Rachel's 5th grade March Madness letters to university teams that actually got replies!!

🔗 Links and resources from this episode:

• Free sample pages from Wendy Conklin's Strategies for Developing Higher-Order Thinking Skills in Grades 3-5
• The Write Thing: Kwame Alexander engages students in Writing Workshop, and you can too!
• Open House Reel 2022 - interdisciplinary project ideas (plus a 5th grade throwback in my highlights)
• Caption cards: an easy way to add in regular informational writing
• Padilla Periodical Student-created newsletter
• Shark News upper grade news crew
• Getting started with a school news crew on Edutopia
• We Are Teachers & USPS Pen Pal Project
• @Kellys_Classroom "SEAKers" Program
• @theuniqueclassroom Animal Shelter persuasive paragraphs
• Reedsy list of children's writing contests
• Get on the waitlist for the FREE virtual training on how to take your upper elementary lessons from rote to "REAL" - leave with 5 "purposeful project" planning templates and the tools you need to increase student engagement, boost motivation, and create lasting learning!

Loved this episode? It would make my day to read your review, and can help more teachers discover the podcast!

Don't forget to submit your Curriculum Conundrum at appleblossomteachers.com/mycc, and subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an answer!

How can you differentiate for such a wide range of writing levels in upper elementary, especially when it feels like pulling teeth to get your kids excited about writing? Writer's Workshop is a great solution, and with a few key moves in your teacher toolbox, your students' writing will start to soar!

***There are TONS of great references and resources shared throughout this episode. Scroll down to the Links section to check out the books I use and those free Jen Bengel resources I mentioned.

The Navigator: Use this to find what you need most!

• (3:30) My favorite book of creative writing prompts for upper elementary
• (6:50) A quick rundown of the four component of a writing workshop model - be sure to check the links below for those articles and free resources that have been very helpful in getting the pieces functioning in my 3rd - 6th grade classrooms
• (9:50) My current favorite teacher book full of writer's workshop strategies and prompts: The Write Thing is written by one of my favorite authors, Kwame Alexander, full of his beautiful narratives of the workshop model's impacts on students he's worked with…seriously, this one is MAGIC!
• (11:10) The classroom management secrets! How do you manage such a variety of writing levels, topics, modes of publication…?!? Here's what the workshop block looks like in many classrooms.
• (15:55) Teacher move #1: How do you decide what to focus your conferring and small group time on?
• (18:25) Teacher move #2: Use mailing labels for your student workshop notes! It builds such a great picture of your young writers' progress.
• (20:30) Teacher move #3: How I use their graphic organizers to identify instructional focus points, quickly group students on the spot, and get students started with a specific goal while I pull group number one.
• (24:40) Teacher move #4: How do you figure out what to say to help students with the goal you've identified? Use my motto: "What would Jennifer Serravallo do?!"
• (26:50) Teacher move #5: How do you decide whether to confer one-on-one or pull a small group?
• (29:35) A workshop pep talk for teachers, in beautiful words, by Kwame Alexander
• (31:41) Teacher move #6: Use a wide variety of mentor texts - here's how a student used popular kid's podcasts to craft his own introduction, AND why this motivated more writing!

Links and resources from this episode:

• Check out all the children's book creators who contributed to Colby Sharp's The Creativity Project book I shared about
• What is Writing Workshop? A quick overview on We Are Teachers
• FREE Reading & Writing Workshop Webinar and downloadable materials from Jen Bengel of Out of this World Literacy (I've watched this the last few summers and get energized and refine my craft each time!)
• The Write Thing: Kwame Alexander engages students in Writing Workshop, and you can too!
• The Writing Strategies Book from Jennifer Serravallo
• Get on the waitlist for the FREE virtual training on how to take your upper elementary lessons from rote to "REAL" - leave with 5 "purposeful project" planning templates and the tools you need to increase student engagement, boost motivation, and create lasting learning!
• Read my Edutopia article about the 5 authentic audiences that will motivate your upper grade writers.

Loved this episode? Take a screenshot, add it to IG, and tag me @appleblossomteachers so we can help even more teachers just like you!

Don't forget to submit your Curriculum Conundrum at appleblossomteachers.com/mycc, and subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an answer!

Do you use literary mentor texts in your classroom? This practice has definitely gained popularity, and for good reason, but many of the resources out there offer strategies for using picture books, novels, and poetry as mentor texts for writing. The strategies from literature analysis can be applied to nonfiction sentence structure, but there are a few easy things you can add to specifically help your students read like writers in informational text.

You don't want to miss:

• (4:40) My biggest reason for wanting my students to write with variety and authenticity…spoiler alert, it's totally selfish!
• (7:46) Why sticking to only 5 paragraph essays is doing our students a disservice
• (9:23) Activity 1: Dissecting introductions and conclusions for students to determine aspects they might mimic
• (13:50) Activity 2: Have students learn about caption cards and informational plaques from museums, and create those about class projects.
• (16:30) The cool thing about variety: understanding that one text about a topic cannot cover everything about a topic, and authors have to be intentional!
• (21:40) Activity 3: Analyze and mimic text features: digging into all the great examples you collected from episode 27 & 28, and finding what they can imitate about their own topics in their own writing

PLUS, my very favorite way to make Open House truly highlight student learning by helping them be the docents!

Links and resources from this episode:

• Get on the waitlist for the FREE virtual training on how to take your upper elementary lessons from rote to "REAL" - leave with 5 "purposeful project" planning templates and the tools you need to increase student engagement, boost motivation, and create lasting learning!
• Read my Edutopia article about the 5 authentic audiences that will motivate your upper grade writers.
• Analyzing introductions & conclusions activity: See it in action here from 5th, and in my story highlights from just this week in 3rd grade! And if you'd like more guidance, this resource has a simple poster setup and guiding questions for your students.
• Want to see the interactive Open House I shared? Check that post and this one from my 5th grade classroom, and see even more in my Open House story highlight.

>>> P.S. Next week is my first ever THIRD GRADE open house, and my students and I have been planning BIG THINGS! Be sure to follow along in my stories next week for all the prep and showcase!

Loved this episode? Take a screenshot, add it to IG, and tag me @appleblossomteachers so we can help even more teachers just like you!

Don't forget to submit your Curriculum Conundrum at appleblossomteachers.com/mycc, and subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an answer!

Remember all those incredible types of informational text we talked about last week? (ICYMI, definitely head back to episode 27!) Today I'm spilling my secrets for bulking up your informational classroom library section on a budget.

Listen in for 6 ways you can support student learning with more (and more authentic!) informational texts for free and almost-free!

You don't want to miss:

• 2:15 - Dani's question about how to set up a classroom library that doesn't have a ton of books (yet!).
• 5:40 - managing borrowed books from the public library so they are ready for you to return without a late fee!
• 8:21 - How to ask for free books from your neighborhood!
• 10:10 - Budget-friendly ways to bulk up your library…not free, but definitely easy on your wallet and often have great sets of series or themed books!
• 13:45 - My ABSOLUTE favorite spot for unique, budget-friendly nonfiction books that are ALWAYS a hit in my classroom, and most have been $7-$9!
• 15:45 - Going beyond the books: quick, FREE ways to add more informational mentor texts to your classroom library, like this dentist pamphlet!
• 19:00 - Even if the CONTENT isn't specifically relevant (they're not going on a road trip through Spain right now!), the skills of understanding real informational text is important in life. Here's how to support that in your young readers.
• 21:50 How your students' families or your own family can help!

Links and resources from this episode:

• Check out the example I mentioned from the San Francisco Airport here, and comment with one random type of informational text you thought of after this episode!
• Get on the waitlist for the FREE virtual training on how to take your upper elementary lessons from rote to "REAL" - leave with 5 "purposeful project" planning templates and the tools you need to increase student engagement, boost motivation, and create lasting learning!

Loved this episode? Take a screenshot, add it to IG, and tag me @appleblossomteachers so we can help even more teachers just like you!

Don't forget to submit your Curriculum Conundrum at appleblossomteachers.com/mycc, and subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an answer!

Welcome back! I am so pumped for this relaunch. Let's jump on in!

>>> Nonfiction books and articles are often readily available in our curriculum and digital downloads, but there's a whole world of real informational text we can easily incorporate beyond that.

Grab your notepad, because I'm sharing TONS of easy ways you can expose your students to more authentic, more varied types of informational text. Giving nonfiction text a purpose in their world, beyond the classroom, is key to increasing student motivation and engagement.

You don't want to miss:

• (3:36) Why your packaged curriculum isn't motivating your students to write, and 3 easy ways to fix it
• (11:17) Trade book recommendations for authentically tying science, social studies, math, art, and more into your reading and writing lessons
• (13:45) My favorite place to buy unique informational books for a steal!
• (21:50) The BEST genre you definitely need in your library!! All about narrative nonfiction and why it's so great for reading and writing instruction…
• (26:17) Authentic nonfiction articles - why quality and frequency matters
• (30:22) What informational text is TRULY presented to us in our world? Spoiler alert, it's not just from books and articles! Here are some easy ways you can expose your students to authentic informational text.

PLUS, how a local dentist is my recent favorite source of informational text in my library. Say what?!

Links and resources from this episode:

• Read about a bonus type of free informational text to add to your instruction here, and be sure to comment with your favorite type mentioned in the episode!
• Get on the waitlist for the FREE virtual training on how to take your upper elementary lessons from rote to "REAL" - leave with 5 "purposeful project" planning templates and the tools you need to increase student engagement, boost motivation, and create lasting learning!

Loved this episode? Take a screenshot, add it to IG, and tag me @appleblossomteachers so we can help even more teachers just like you!

Don't forget to submit your Curriculum Conundrum at appleblossomteachers.com/mycc, and subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an answer!