THE LIFELONG LEARNER
Musings on Life in & Around the Bookshelf
About ME
I’m a technology-loving, high school English teacher. And my passion is to help students rediscover a love of reading through authentic, real-world tasks. Despite 20+ years in the classroom, I’m excited about all of the learning that awaits me.
My Approach to Writing
In many ways, teachers are coaches. And because I’ve been with the franchise twenty-five seasons (even though I’m only 25 😬), I’ve learned a thing or two along the way. Here’s what I’ve learned about writing instruction.
My Pledge to Students
Before I can ask certain things from my students, I need to make some promises of my own. The first assignment every year begins with a pledge I share with my students, and then they publish their own list of commitments to me.
New Year’s Resolutions –COVID Edition
2020 was, to quote CNN’s Jake Tapper, “a hot mess inside a dumpster fire inside a trainwreck.” And others agree. Towns rang in the new year with literal dumpster fires; the Holderness family pushed out a Billy Joel parody about them; and one YouTube…
The Gratitude Project (Take that, 2020!)
2020 has been brutal. COVID-19, racial injustice (i.e., the Other Pandemic), murder hornets, plane crashes, brushfires, elections, remote learning, working from home. You name it, and it’s most likely been a part of 2020. One theory blames the “Baby Shark” song. If you’ve ever…
Spinach-Filled Brownies
Sneaking Rigor into the Choice-Reading Classroom Choice is a beautiful thing. With students choosing their own titles in my class, there’s so. much. beauty. There’s beauty in watching Reluctant Readers realize that reading is enjoyable–maybe just not how we‘ve been assigning it. These students…
