Deedee and Adam talk about ways to increase the writing your students do across all of the subjects.

"Writing about content material facilitates learning by consolidating information in long-term memory."

Professor Steve Graham from the Teachers College at Arizona State University

Here are a few of the suggestions that were listed in the article:

Read this entire article by clicking:

Additional ideas to incorporate writing throughout the day:

Deedee and Adam chat with Katie Mense about her new book, Yani, the Yeti.  Katie shares about the process she went through to self publish her first children's book!   Katie offers her tips for finding an illustrator to make the story come to life.

You can find this book on Amazon Affiliate link by clicking:  Yani the Yeti: and the Power of Yet

Here are a few of the links to resources we mentioned in the podcast:

Here is how you can find Katie Mense:

Deedee and Adam chat with Ryan Nevius from Illinois ASCD.  Every year, this is a massive Pre-K and Kindergarten conference that is going virtual this year.  Ryan shares how nimble they needed to be to bring amazing content to teachers everywhere!  Learn more about this conference by clicking.

ILLINOIS ASCD 2021 PRE-K AND KINDERGARTEN CONFERENCE

Deedee and Adam discuss ways to check for understanding digitally.  Back in 2015, an article was written for The Reading Teacher, but it seems like it was made for 2020-2021!  Teachers today have expressed how challenging it is to keep students engaged during distance learning.   Some of these tools may help improve student involvement while also providing great feedback around student understanding.

Here are a few of the tools Adam and Deedee discussed:

You can find the article that Deedee and Adam discussed in:

The Reading Teacher Vol.69 Issue 3 November/December 2015

Deedee and Adam discuss an article from The Reading Teacher on text selection and integration.  The article titled, "Five Steps Towards Successful Culturally Relevant Text Selection and Integration," walks teachers through the changing demographics and the need for culturally responsive pedagogy.  Here is some information that you might find helpful:

The Reading Teacher Vol.71, NO.3 pp 295-307  November/December 2017

Websites with Book Lists

Suggested Additional Professional Reading

Teachers Who Share Book Ideas on Social Media

Deedee and Adam catch up after a long winter break and chat about some fun ways to make the 100th day of school as fun as possible in this ever-changing year of education!

Deedee and Adam sit down with Cynthia Kaye to talk about the exciting new learning platform from Alive Studios called Zoo Camp! Students learn letters and sounds with live teacher instruction and engagement. HINT: Adam is the teacher!

Learn more:

https://alivestudiosco.com/

Get your copy of PrincipalED

From fighting wildland fires with the U.S. Forest Service to putting out fires in the classroom, education was the last place that Rachael thought she’d end up.  It wasn’t until a hard conversation with a base manager in Grangeville, Idaho did Rachael realize she needed to put her chainsaw down and make a bigger impact on the world.  Rachael is a member of the ASCD Emerging Leaders Class of 2015 and currently serves as the principal of Sandy Grade School in the Oregon Trail School District.  Over the past seven years, Sandy Grade School has moved from being one of the lowest ranked elementary schools in the state of Oregon to performing in the top 20% of elementary schools.  Sandy Grade School has been recognized by the International Center for Leadership in Education (ICLE) as a Model School for closing the achievement gap.  Prior to serving as an elementary principal, she was a middle school principal of an “outstanding” and two-time “Level 5: Model School” as recognized by the State of Oregon.  Rachael serves as the Coalition of Oregon School Administrators President Elect, is the NAESP State Representative for Oregon, and is an NAESP Fellow. Rachael just released her first book PrincipalED: Navigating the Leadership Learning Curve with two friends and has two other books in the works. She specializes in curriculum development, instructional improvement as well as working with at-risk students and closing the achievement gap.  Connect with Rachael on Twitter @DrRachaelGeorge.

In this episode Deedee and Adam talked about trying to find gratitude in this moment in time.

Deedee and Adam continue their discussion on how to help students who are struggling to learn to read. They discuss the Orton-Gillingham approach to instruction. Join them!

They discuss how using the science of reading and orthographic mapping to teach high-frequency words to move students away from memorization and guide them towards mastery.

Read more about the Science of Reading Lesson format by going to: