My units on novels move from the large, external world of the character to the small, internal one (and then back again).  

Wouldn't it be nice if students could get just as excited to come to our classroom as they did for the big game?  Or if we had the same attitude toward mistakes, building skills, and teamwork?  This week, I'll elaborate on the metaphor, learning is a sport.  

The first time I saw a rubric, I thought, yikes!  That doesn't look like a whole lot of fun.  So let's think about how we can simplify rubrics so they are easy to understand and useful.  

We learned to juggle education websites last year, so now it's time to get back to pencil and paper and think about how students stay engaged in real life.  I'll go over the seven simple ways students learn.  

Lately, I've been trying to make things more exciting than usual to get my students excited about literature.  I'll go over five easy ways to inspire and motivate your young scholars.  

Interpreting poems about poetry can get students excited about a challenging literary form.  These six poems should help them use their imagination and embrace their confusion.  

Does that syllable get a stress?!  Prosody doesn't have to be hard, and it actually helps students appreciate the playfulness of poetry. This week, I'll go over how I teach prosody and rhythm.  

Be scared, be very scared.  I'm talking about the thesis statement, the be all end all of the essay.  Or is it?

It's fun to assign a personal narrative to start the year.  I'll talk about the ways that I try to inspire my students to write in their everyday storytelling voices.  

Start the school year with a revolution!  I'll talk about the first conversation I have with my students about the functions of language and all the reasons to love reading fiction.