It’s no secret that if your classroom is a welcoming place for students, they’ll want to be there.

Not spending enough time building a positive classroom community is one of the biggest mistakes a teacher can make.  Before you can dive into learning, students need to feel safe, wanted, and a part of the group.  

If you crave a classroom full of students that feel like family, then this week’s summer road trip playlist is for you.  Learn how to:

•  building a community of readers (and leaders!)
• create a culture of kindness in your classroom
• simple keys to success when building a positive learning environment
• ways to make your classroom a calm and peaceful place.

The Mindful Apple - Shop & Blog (Social Emotional Learning Resources)

If you know. You Know.

Teacher life is tough to explain to someone who isn’t a teacher.  We have our own language, shared struggles and triumphs - so many things that only another teacher can relate to.

The teacher community is such an amazing group, filled with educators who selflessly give of themselves to their students day after day, year after year.

In this episode, I’ve curated clips that we can all relate to as teachers including:

•  how to survive a super challenging school year
• the 7 habits of highly effective teachers
• how to seamlessly share your classroom with another teachers
• how to establish your own routines and procedures to keep yourself on point
• how to deal with that nagging, ever-present feeling of overwhelm.

Click HERE for complete show notes and the chance to win this week's giveaway (a $25 gift card for TpT or Starbucks!)

Staring into a sea of glazed-over eyes is soul crushing for any teacher.  All teachers aim for a classroom of engaged and excited learners - but getting there can be quite a feat.  

The key is to vary the WAYS that you try to engage your students.  Doing one engagement strategy might work for a while, but it will eventually fall flat when the initial excitement dies down.  That’s why in this week’s episode I’m sharing multiple ways that you can keep your students excited, engaged, and interacting with each other in all parts of your school day.

I’ve curated clips from past episodes all about:

• engaging ways to start a lesson
• 5-minute fillers that aren’t a waste of time
• fool-proof ways in boost student engagement
• ways to ditch the boring textbook and replace them with more engaging alternatives.

Join the Teacher Summer Road Trip for all the freebies and a chance to win weekly giveaway prizes!

Show What You Know! Cards

LINKtivity® Interactive Learning Guides

Writing is often hard for students and teachers alike!  That’s why in this episode I’ve curated a batch of writing inspiration to help you get your writing plan in order for the upcoming school year.  We’ll cover some of the most important aspects of what makes your writing instruction successful in the elementary classroom.  

Here’s what I’ve got in store for you in this week’s road trip play list:

• Learn how to start your writer’s workshop off strong right from the beginning of the school year
• See how you can keep you and your students ultra organized in writer’s workshop by implementing a writer’s notebook.
• Bust through those “I don’t know what to write about” woes by learning some simple tips that will help your students generate their own writing ideas.
• Make writer’s workshop a more meaningful experience for your students by using a share chair to have your writers collaborate over their writing pieces.

Student Writer’s Notebook

Launching Writer’s Workshop Unit

Don't miss a single freebie or giveaway this summer!  Make sure you're on my email list to grab this week’s road trip souvenirs (aka: featured freebies)  from our Members Resource Library under “SUMMER ROAD TRIP” section.

It’s time to have a little fun!  Before we hit the road on our summer teacher road trip and visit some of the most popular episodes from this past school year - get to know your road trip buddy (me!). 

This is a fun episode!  For the first time, I recorded an “Ask Me Anything” episode where I’m answering some Classroom Commute listener questions!  From personal questions (like - what’s my favorite TV show) to teacher-related questions (I’ll tell you why I left the classroom) - I’m answering them all!

Be sure that you're signed up to join us on this summer road trip and get access to weekly freebies and giveaways!

Sign up here!

We’ve been carpooling together all school year long - it only makes sense that we take this show on the road and swap the classroom commute for a summer road trip!

Along the way we’ll stop at some of the most popular tourist destinations (aka most popular episodes from the past school year).

And what does every road trip need?  An EPIC playlist!  I’ve got you covered!  I’ll provide the tunes - and by tunes, I mean episodes that are packed with teacher goodness, motivation, and inspiration, ya know - the typical Classroom Commute stuff :)  

This summer, I’m in the driver’s seat and I’ll share a weekly playlist that you can listen to as you sit back and enjoy the view out the window!

And, of course what’s a road trip without souvenirs?  Yep, I’ve got those, too!  With each weekly playlist, I’ll be sharing freebies and giveaways along the way!  Be sure you’re on my email list so you don’t miss out!

For complete show notes, visit, classroomnook.com/podcast/71

Get all the details for our summer road trip (and get on the email list so you don’t miss a single freebie or giveaway) HERE.

Submit your questions for the upcoming Ask Me Anything episode

Maybe.  I was.  For a long time.

And my students struggled because of it.  I’d asked students the classic prompting questions like What did the character learn?  or What was the problem that the character was facing? — all good questions.  However when we ask our students to take the giant leap from answering those prompts to identifying theme, we lose them.

What they really need is the bridge to get from the prompt to theme.  A repeatable formula that breaks the process of finding theme in literature into simple steps.

And - I’ve got that formula for you today!  When I started using this theme-finding formula with my students…it WORKED!  Like, really worked.  Students were able to identify theme and support it using evidence from the text.  It was like magic.

I want your students to be able to do the same so I’m sharing all the details on today’s podcast.  It’s must-listen episode for any upper elementary reading teacher.

For complete show notes, visit, classroomnook.com/podcast/70

LINKtivity: Story Mountain 

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

Grab my FREE Teaching Theme Starter Kit

There's always so much to do before summer vacation.

Before you can turn in your classroom keys for the summer you likely have paperwork to complete, reorganizing your classroom cabinets, closets, and drawers —all those things that got in disarray in the thick of the school year.

And if you’ve ever been that last teacher out the door sailing off into summer vacay mode - then you know how painful it can be!  (Trust me - I’ve been there more times than I care to count!)

So, let’s not let it happen again, mmmk?

What if you could be the FIRST teacher checkin’ out for the summer?  What if you had your classroom, cleaned, prepped, organized, and ready for custodial approval ….EARLY?

Sounds lovely.

The secret to making it all happen?  Don’t do it all yourself!  Instead of waiting till your students leave on that last day of school to get your classroom in order, enlist the help of your students to get it done FASTER!  And you know what - students actually LOVE to help you clean and organize your classroom.  It’s a win-win.

Now, before you start passing out garbage bags, sponges, and cleaning sprays - you need to have a METHOD to the madness.  And that’s what this episode is all about.  I’ll show you exactly how I successfully and methodically had my students help me prepare my classroom for the summer.

For complete show notes, visit, classroomnook.com/podcast/69
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CLICK HERE to Grab my FREE Classroom Clean-Up Tasks to help you get organized!

It sure does…. sometimes.  But why is teaching this reading comprehension strategy so hard?

There are a number of reasons students often struggle with synthesizing.  One- it’s an abstract concept.  Asking students to synthesize requires more than just surface-level thinking.  They have to think beyond the text in order to form a synthesis.  Two - it’s a multi-level strategy.  Synthesizing can’t be taught in isolation.  This strategy requires students to draw upon other skills and strategies, like determining importance, or inferring, and using schema  in order to form a true synthesis!  

So what’s a teacher to do?  Throw spaghetti at the all and hope something sticks?

Nah - I’ve got a better teaching strategy for you - and we cover it all in this podcast episode.

We’ll talk about the hurdles and roadblocks and that students face when learning this strategy.  We’ll overcome the common mistakes made by teachers AND students when it comes to fully understanding what synthesizing a text truly means.

So - keep your spaghetti in the pot, and have a listen!

For complete show notes visit:  classroomnook.com/podcast/68
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LINKS & RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE:
Reading Comprehension Strategies Podcast Episodes: 

• EPISODE 41: Teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies
• EPISODE 42: Reading Comprehension Instruction: How to Teach Making Connections
• EPISODE 47: Reading Comprehension Strategies: How to Teach Visualizing
• EPISODE 51: Reading Comprehension Strategies: How to Teach Making Predictions
• EPISODE 56: Boost Reading Comprehension: A Simple Approach to Teaching Students to Ask Questions While Reading
• EPISODE 59: A Step-By-Step Guide to Teaching Determining Importance in the Upper Elementary Classroom
• EPISODE 64: Helping Your Students Make Inferences When They Read

Learn more about the 3 Types of Synthesizing HERE

List of Aesop’s Fables 

Reading with Meaning by Debbie Miller

RESOURCE: Forming a Synthesis LINKtivity 

Grab my FREE Synthesizing Bookmark inside the Members Resource Library under “Reading Resources.”