Craft & Draft

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Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching. 

In this episode, Pam shares a presentation from her past, “Activating Writers with Mentor Texts.” Pam explains how she uses mentor texts to activate her students so they can get their story on the page. She works through a variety of strategies that will help her students learn to better different aspects of their writing process.

Jacob asks questions and offers his insight on how he would use the strategies or change some of them. 

Join Jacob and Pam as they discuss a presentation from Pam’s past.  Maybe it will help you activate your students, too!

The post #153 Activating Writers with Mentor Texts (Bonus Video) appeared first on Craft & Draft.

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching. 

August is here and the new school year is around the corner! 

In this episode, Jacob and Pam discuss how the new year brings new possibilities and opportunities.  Jacob likes starting new things.  This year he will be moving away from his comfort zone and adding to his wheel-house.  He shares what he is looking forward to accomplishing this year.  

Pam shares some of past experiences with beginning new years and how she made them successful.  She reflects on how she uses writing and reading on the first day.  

Join Jacob and Pam as they discuss the new year and how they use it to reset and hone their craft even more!

The post #152 New School Year… New Us? appeared first on Craft & Draft.

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching. 

In this episode, Jacob and Pam explore how reading and writing workshop enable teachers to comply with the accommodations and modifications of their special needs students. 

Jacob discusses the demands placed upon educators regarding their students.  Pam shares some of her personal experiences trying to meet the demands.

They explain how they each use the workshop reading and writing time to create opportunities to work with students individually and in small groups.  

Join Jacob and Pam as they meander through the world of special needs and to navigate that world using the workshop model.

The post #151 Workshop and Special Needs Students appeared first on Craft & Draft.

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.

In this two part episode, Jacob and Pam answer a question about the day in the life of a workshop teacher’s classroom during part one.  They discuss how to begin the process of creating a reading or writing workshop.  Pam begins by explaining how she focuses on the curriculum objectives and determines how she will design the workshop so that the students are doing the work.  Jacob discusses how he creates more mini-lessons to meet the writing needs of his students.

In part two, Jacob and Pam answer a question about how they each work with difficult colleagues.

Join Jacob and Pam as they answer a patron’s questions. If you have questions, please feel free to ask! They love answering your questions.

The post #150 Working with Difficult Colleagues (pt.2) appeared first on Craft & Draft.

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching. 

In this two part episode, Jacob and Pam answer a question about the day in the life of a workshop teacher’s classroom during part one.  They discuss how to begin the process of creating a reading or writing workshop.  Pam begins by explaining how she focuses on the curriculum objectives and determines how she will design the workshop so that the students are doing the work.  Jacob discusses how he creates more mini-lessons to meet the writing needs of his students.

In part two, Jacob and Pam answer a question about how they each work with difficult colleagues.

Join Jacob and Pam as they answer a patron’s questions. If you have questions, please feel free to ask! They love answering your questions.

The post #149 A Day in the Life of a Workshop Teacher (Part 1) appeared first on Craft & Draft.

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching. 

Should Jacob buy a new car? If so, what should he buy?  Jacob and Pam discuss such questions, but most of all they discuss the matter of annotation in the reading workshop.

Pam shares how she has killed the love of reading (when she was a new teacher) because she would force students to annotate entire novels–it was a district expectation.  Jacob shares how he has been on teams that would fail students if they did not turn in their annotations.

Jacob and Pam agree that annotating is important and should be taught.

Join Jacob and Pam as they discuss how to teach students to annotate in a reading workshop classroom.

The post #148 Annotation is to Reading as Diagramming is to Grammar appeared first on Craft & Draft.

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching. 

With new technology such as Chat GPT, plagiarism seems to be a huge issue in the writing classroom.  Does it need to be a problem?

In this session, Jacob and Pam discuss how they have dealt with plagiarism in the past. Pam shares how she turns these issues into teachable moments.  Jacob shares how he uses process writing to decompress the students’ need to steal someone’s work. 

They both comment on what plagiarism is and how copyright is often ignored.  Streaming videos and borrowing content on the internet is often looked at as a way to collaborate. Jacob says that people do not regard copyright in the same way anymore and that influences how students work in the classroom.

Join Jacob and Pam as they consider plagiarism and what teachers can do about it. 

The post #147 Plagiarism: What Can Teachers Do About It? appeared first on Craft & Draft.

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching. 

In this episode, Jacob and Pam take a look at GPTChat and try out some lesson ideas. Jacob queries Pam on how she used it to create the last episode’s blurb.  They each compare it to the future of writing instruction.

Pam shares a lesson idea using subject-verb agreement with GPTChat. Jacob then leads an analysis discussion regarding the lesson and how it could be changed.  Jacob then shares a lesson idea about teaching text structures and how they are used for the author’s purpose.  Jacob and Pam go through the lesson created by GPTChat and illustrate how teachers could use this tool to help with their professional dialogues. 

Join Jacob and Pam while they analyze and rate the lessons.  See how you might be able to use GPTChat to help you with lesson planning, too!

The post #146 We Rate ChatGPT Lessons for English Language Arts appeared first on Craft & Draft.

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching. 

Join Jacob and Pam on an eye-opening journey as they delve into the fascinating and thought-provoking topic: ‘Should teachers fear technology in classrooms?’

In this episode, Jacob and Pam navigate the intersection of education and technology, exploring the potential benefits and challenges that arise when integrating technology into our learning spaces.

Pam will share some of her personal history with technology and how it has been changing throughout her teaching career.  Jacob will explain how he is already using ‘Chat GPT’ to assist him in his role as an administrator.

Join Jacob and Pam while they navigate the possibilities of AI in a new world of education.  Maybe this episode will calm your fears, too!

The post #145 Artificial Intelligence is Here to Stay appeared first on Craft & Draft.

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching. 

Today, Jacob gave several presentations at a workshop for a nearby district.  He enjoyed his day, so he is ending it with some reflection.

In this episode, Jacob and Pam discuss the art of presentation.  During Jacob’s reflection, he began to ask how do you know how to time yourself… “How long is too long? How much interaction do you need with the audience?  When do you need to be flexible? And so on”.

Pam shares her answers to many of these questions and discusses how she goes about preparing for her presentations.  Jacob shares what he thinks is most important when considering what should be presented.

Join Jacob and Pam as they reflect on ‘The Art of Presentation.’ If you present or want to begin maybe you will find some thoughts to help you, too!

The post #144 The Art of Presentation appeared first on Craft & Draft.