May 9, 2020
So, Sara and I have been working on an iteration of this project for almost a decade. We are going to be rolling out this resource this Fall. Nearly 200 lessons ready with slides to project and teacher notes to guide instruction utilizing poetry, prose, mentor texts, language lessons, standards based, while still being fun […]
February 24, 2020
OH – IO! Sara and I try to make the Ohio Council of Teachers of English language Arts (OCTELA) whenever we can. We’ve probably attended a just under a dozen or so times the last 20 years – international travel often takes us far away but this year we were able to make it. I […]
February 20, 2020
4.0 GPAs are a dime a dozen. Okay that’s a little inflammatory but the sentiment holds true. The admission process for colleges and universities has become tougher and tougher. With AP and IB classes and the extra emphasis toward college ready students the tip top of the crop is getting more and more crowded. So, […]
February 12, 2020
Reading Recovery teachers are hard core. Chatting with the folks around the Scholastic booth we learned that that the reps were very impressed with the engagement, questions and expertise of the attendees at the 2020 Reading Recovery National Conference. Sara and I have been fans for years, since even before presenting at the World Literacy […]
February 7, 2020
Sara and I have been visiting Eastern Middle School in Old Greenwich, Connecticut for over a dozen years in a row now. They are easily our most visited school. Why? Because we love them, and they love us. We’ve seen these sixth-grade teachers through baby booms, blizzards, missed flights… you name it we’ve seen […]
March 26, 2019
Head to the Caribbean in the middle of march from Cleveland? Why yes, thank you. Sara and I brought our style of writing instruction to the Dominican Republic for the first time. It was great to be working overseas with absolutely no jet-lag! It was also great to be working with such enthusiastic teachers and […]
March 11, 2019
If you’re not doing things that scare you a little you’re not progressing. First off – Visiting the Zaharis Literacy Conference wasn’t scary at all – it was a delight. How do these oases of stellar learning spring up? Principal Mike Oliver has created a read read read friendly environment that made me wish I […]
February 6, 2019
Sara and I love our visits to Ohio schools. We also love our travels around the country and the world – but our home state is still special to us, and the folks at Champion Middle sure made it easy to love this visit. This was one well prepared school thanks to our main poet […]
January 19, 2019
12 years – that’s how long Sara and I have been coming to Eastern Middle School in Greenwich, CT. We love this little public school with its art covered walls and rambling old building and we really do have friends here. Eastern used to be traditionally our last school of the year but overseas scheduling […]
October 19, 2018
Ever have the feeling that you’ve been somewhere before? The Bahrain Bayan School was the very first international school we ever visited over 14 years ago! It was great to complete this big crazy circle with friends old and new. Our host with the most on this iteration was a force we met in Cairo […]
