Starting a new novel unit

This week my class will begin reading Jean Craighead George’s “The Talking Earth”. I spent a few weeks looking for a good novel with an environmental theme. I also wanted it to follow a survival or journey theme, as our first unit is usually based around a survival story. I stumbled upon [...]

The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages

I have been meaning to pick up a copy of this book for a while (since it won the Scott O’Dell Award), and was very excited to see it offered in the first Scholastic catalog I handed out this year. The order came in this week and I just finished the book. I [...]

Back to School Night

I am exhausted tonight. It has been a very long week! Wednesday was Back to School Night, and I have felt like a zombie ever since. It is stressful and exhausting preparing for the 45 minutes when 25 pairs of adult eyes will be staring at you, scrutinizing your every word (and [...]

I love to read!

There is no better feeling than having a student run up to you the moment they get to school, clenching a book to their chest that you recommended. Here is how I began my day:
“Oh my gosh!!! **** DIED! I couldn’t stop reading last night! This is the best book ever! [...]

A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass

I had been meaning to read this book for a while. Somehow, it came up in discussion at school last week, and one of my students immediately responded with, “My aunt wrote that book!” I’m going to get more info this week, because Wendy Mass is semi-local and I would love to [...]

Cape May Migration

photo taken by me
This morning I rose bright and early for the two and a quarter hour drive to Cape May. I arrived right on time and met up with the other teachers from the Monarch Teacher Network. It was great seeing everyone! After catching up for a bit, I set out [...]

Where I’m From

This summer, I learned about something called “Where I’m From” poems on the RealWritingTeachers yahoo group. I was intrigued and decided to give them a shot this year. The beginning of the school year is always chaotic because our team doesn’t switch classes until the second week (we are departmentalized) and we are [...]

history of a name

This week, my 6th grade class began working in their writer’s notebooks. During the first week of school, we wrote “Where I’m From” poems, which turned out beautifully. Now I want to get them into the habit of writing daily. I started with Aimee Buckner’s history of a name activity. I [...]

Monarch Magic

Tomorrow morning, I will leave bright and early to head down to Cape May Point. I will be meeting up with my friends in the
Monarch Teacher Network
, for the semi-annual Teachers for Biodiversity meeting. While this may sound odd for a Language Arts teacher, I raise monarchs with my class every fall. [...]

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

This book was recommended to me by one of my students. (Tangent- how great is it that I already have students recommending books to me in the first 3 weeks?). I picked it up in the bookstore last night and didn’t put it down until I finished it in reading workshop this afternoon. [...]