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Hello, hello! I hope everyone is having a fantastic week so far!

Sooo raise your hand if you use choice boards… 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️ And if you hadn’t before the pandemic, chances are you’re using them now. Why? Because they are a GREAT strategy for asynchronous learning (so if you still haven’t tried them, give it a shot! Hopefully this week's email will inspire you.)

The thing with choice boards is they are also great for face-to-face learning. So I want to share how you can use choice boards in a variety of ways to help differentiate instruction and simplify some prep and planning.

A choice board is essentially a menu. We put a table on a one page piece of paper where students can pick from a variety of activities. They can sort of choose their own adventure in terms of how they’re going to complete the activities!

It allows students to demonstrate the set of skills you are assessing but gives them a choice in terms of how they are going to be presenting their knowledge to you.

I’ve found the number one benefit to choice boards is it will cover a number of days of learning! Which means less prep and planning time for you (YAY! 🎉)

The other reason I love choice boards is because I'm a BIG proponent of choice and voice in the classroom and these boards allow for just that. Students can show you their learning but have a choice and voice as to how that’s going to happen.

Without further ado… here are my 3 main ways you can use choice boards in the classroom!

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Hello, hello!

I hope you are all having a fantastic week so far! Today I wanted to talk a little about assessing student’s work in this digital world.

Most of us are probably marking or grading work that students have completed remotely. That means we may be using new tools to grade the completed work. 👩🏼‍💻

Personally, I’ve actually been using Google classroom for about 5 years now give or take (the first group I ever used it with are in grade 12 now, for reference!).

That being said, I wanted to share with you some of the things I have done over the years to quickly and easily mark student assessments when the work is submitted digitally.

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Check out the Ignited Teaching Membership that gives you access to hundreds of downloadable lessons on demand! https://madlylearning.com/sp/ignitedteaching/
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Hello, hello!

So, it looks like we’re in this whole remote teaching thing for the long haul. Whether that’s a month, two months, I’m not sure. But I don’t want you to wait a second longer when it comes to getting some of your time back.

That means I am going to do everything I can to support you and help make your remote teaching experience less stressful. We’re all in this together.

My guess is you’re probably spending more time prepping and planning as a remote teacher than you were in the classroom? (I can say that is definitely the case for me).

I wanted to share my 4 strategies to reduce some of the prep that you are experiencing right now. Basically, we need to make sure remote teaching doesn’t completely consume us.

Here are the 4 areas that I think are key to helping you reduce your remote teaching workload.

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Check out the Ignited Teaching Membership that gives you access to hundreds of downloadable lessons on demand! https://madlylearning.com/sp/ignitedteaching/
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This week I want to talk all about your home teaching space! Because the reality is, I think we’re going to be doing this whole remote-teaching thing for just a little bit longer.

There are 3 areas we’re going to want to look at in the home classroom.

Tech

Space

Demo

Let’s jump in!

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Hi, Teachers!

I hope you’re having an awesome week so far. I wanted to talk to you today about setting realistic goals and aligning priorities.

For most of us, the new challenge in our career is remote teaching. We can set realistic goals for ourselves when it comes to taking on this challenge while at the same time making sure it doesn’t take over our lives.

I want to talk to you about 6 different areas of our lives.

Teaching

Family

Friends

Fitness

Hobbies

Fun

So what is most important to you? I want you to rank these 6 things in order of importance.

Remember to Subscribe for more insights on how to navigate the complexities of teaching with efficiency and impact. Share your experiences and strategies in the comments to join the conversation with fellow educators.

To find our highly effective, time-saving resources 

Check out the Ignited Teaching Membership that gives you access to hundreds of downloadable lessons on demand! https://madlylearning.com/sp/ignitedteaching/
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I hope you have all had an okay start back into the second half of the school year. Now, I know this is not what we signed up for. In fact, it is VERY different than what we signed up for. So I wanted to share some tips today to help you break through the overwhelm and stress that comes with being a “digital” teacher.

First, take away all the noise and chaos and get down to the very basics...Just TEACH!

Believe that you know how to do this. Because you DO!

Remember to Subscribe for more insights on how to navigate the complexities of teaching with efficiency and impact. Share your experiences and strategies in the comments to join the conversation with fellow educators.

To find our highly effective, time-saving resources 

Check out the Ignited Teaching Membership that gives you access to hundreds of downloadable lessons on demand! https://madlylearning.com/sp/ignitedteaching/
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I’m popping in today to talk all about student teacher writing conferences!

Whether you already have these one on one sessions with your students or not, I wanted to share the structure I use in my Ignited Literacy Program and how these conferences help students gain confidence in their writing skills. 📝

What’s great about these assessments is that it gives an opportunity to provide feedback and really help students work on their goals and set them up for success ✨(the goals are on my Be A Star Goal Board posted in my classroom!).

Remember - small incremental improvements over time lead to big success. 🤩

Remember to Subscribe for more insights on how to navigate the complexities of teaching with efficiency and impact. Share your experiences and strategies in the comments to join the conversation with fellow educators.

To find our highly effective, time-saving resources 

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Hi friends!

It seems to me that there are two distinct types of teachers. Those that use Literature Circles and those that use Literature Centers.

Now over my career, I’ve used both Literature Centers and Literature Circles (we’ll get to my personal favorite at the end 😉). Neither is right or wrong and BOTH have a valid place in the classroom.

If you’re still deciding which is the best for your teaching style, you’re in luck. Here come the pros and cons to both options!

Remember to Subscribe for more insights on how to navigate the complexities of teaching with efficiency and impact. Share your experiences and strategies in the comments to join the conversation with fellow educators.

To find our highly effective, time-saving resources 

Check out the Ignited Teaching Membership that gives you access to hundreds of downloadable lessons on demand! https://madlylearning.com/sp/ignitedteaching/
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Raise your hand if Lesson Planning feels like the biggest time thief. 🙋🏼‍♀️

Yes? Then boy am I glad I popped in your inbox. I know firsthand just how much time (not to mention stress) lesson planning can take. So I’ve gathered my top 5 tips to help you streamline this process and get you some of that free time back.💆🏼‍♀️

Working yourself to the bone isn’t healthy for you, your family, and it doesn’t make you a better teacher! We can still deliver effective and engaging lessons without having to sacrifice all of our personal time.

Let’s get you back to enjoying those evenings with your family - here are my top 5-time saver tips for lesson planning

Remember to Subscribe for more insights on how to navigate the complexities of teaching with efficiency and impact. Share your experiences and strategies in the comments to join the conversation with fellow educators.

To find our highly effective, time-saving resources 

Check out the Ignited Teaching Membership that gives you access to hundreds of downloadable lessons on demand! https://madlylearning.com/sp/ignitedteaching/
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Today I wanted to take a little trip down memory lane. I’ve dug back through the Madly Learning Archives to gather the very BEST teaching advice for the junior grades.

So let’s jump right in, shall we?! Here are my favorite teaching tips through the years!

Remember to Subscribe for more insights on how to navigate the complexities of teaching with efficiency and impact. Share your experiences and strategies in the comments to join the conversation with fellow educators.

To find our highly effective, time-saving resources 

Check out the Ignited Teaching Membership that gives you access to hundreds of downloadable lessons on demand! https://madlylearning.com/sp/ignitedteaching/
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