I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! In today’s episode, middle school reading expert Kristy, from 2 Peas and a Dog , shares her perspective on how having a classroom library enhances the quality of reading engagement in the classroom. She also shares how to choose the right books for your library, because as Kristy notes, a classroom library is a curated collection of texts arranged with your students in mind . Links mentioned in this episode: Blog https://2peasandadog.com/category/classr...
Mar 17, 2020•21 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! Today, I have asked Carrie to share with you her best tips on how to set yourself up for success during your next teaching interview. With spring right around the corner, some of you might be peeking at openings in other districts or positions, and even if not, it never hurts to be prepared because you just never know when your dream job could pop up. The tips she shares are golden, so grab your notepad and let’s dive in! Links mentioned in this episode...
Mar 10, 2020•30 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! When you think about grammar instruction, do you feel excited and passionate or shudder and groan? I find that the topic of grammar elicits very strong and often opposing responses among ELA teachers. Basically, you either love it or you hate it. For those of you who love grammar instruction, you are in luck because today’s podcast episode is all about how to knock it out of the park in your classroom. And if you currently despise teaching grammar, or j...
Mar 03, 2020•25 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! Have you ever considered that one reason your students misbehave in the classroom is because they are not engaged? You may be working your butt off to ensure that they’re meeting the standards and becoming the best readers and writers they can be, but if your lessons aren’t engaging, there’s bound to be some classroom management issues you’re facing. When students are engaged in their learning, their attention and focus increase, they’re motivated to pr...
Feb 25, 2020•17 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! "I have a confidence and a calmness to me knowing that I’m meeting standards, but I’m also making them have fun. I don’t have to go into tomorrow thinking they may not like this because I know that they’re going to love what we’re doing. It’s an overall happiness." Those are just a few of Chelsey's transformations that she's seen as a result of joining The EB Teachers' Club. If you've been feeling like your lessons are disjointed and pieced together, an...
Feb 20, 2020•17 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! Teachers consistently reach out to us asking how to make their classrooms run more smoothly because they are struggling to accomplish everything that needs to get done in a single period. Think about it. Teachers are expected to manage taking attendance, checking homework, chatting with students about missing work or grades, passing out all the things, and collecting others--all while keeping twenty to thirty kids learning. In a 45 minute period, we are...
Feb 18, 2020•15 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! I’m sure you can all relate to a feeling that Alexa so openly shared with me today. Sometimes, as teachers, we find ourselves in a rut--lacking inspiration, energy, or confidence in the classroom. It could be due to a particular unit that isn’t clicking, some classroom personalities that aren’t quite jiving, or simply a time when life outside of school is so hectic, draining, or challenging that our happiness and success at work are affected. While thes...
Feb 13, 2020•24 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! There is no doubt about it--Valentine’s Day is one of the craziest days of the school year in a middle school classroom. Hormones and red carnations fly, and I will tell you from my own experience that the day can either be incredible or a complete nightmare. Today, I will share my tips and tricks for creating a lesson on Valentine’s Day that will engage your students, feed on their energy and enthusiasm, and still teach rigorous content. Links mentione...
Feb 11, 2020•14 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! In today's episode, I'm interviewing one of our EB Teachers' Club members, Monica Jayasinghe. Monica is a 6th grade ELA and Social Studies teacher in Watts, California, which is located in Los Angeles. Hear what Monica has to say about her experience as an EB Teacher: "When I come home, I don’t have to stress about what I’m going to do tomorrow and are they [my students] going to like it, and am I going to hit all my standards, because I KNOW these unit...
Feb 06, 2020•19 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! Can you name a single teacher who doesn’t wish they could spend less time planning? Yeah… I didn’t think so. Honestly, who wants to be spending their free time working when they could be enjoying their hobbies, family, or friends? No one! I get it, and I am all about working smarter, not harder. So today, I want to share a strategy with you that TOTALLY shifted the way I think about managing my time. Truly, it has been a game-changer for me, and I know ...
Feb 04, 2020•20 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! Today I want to talk a little about my story and why engaging lessons are at the forefront of everything I do in EB Academics. Along with one of our team members, Kara, I create a lot of the content, or monthly lesson plans for our teachers in the EB Teachers’ Club. It’s super important to me that the lessons are rigorous and standards-aligned and yet are so much fun for the students that they are practically jumping out of their seats to see what they’...
Jan 28, 2020•9 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! If our students are not engaged in their learning, then we’ve lost them already. They’ve tuned out and they’re thinking about all the other pressing concerns preteens and teenagers face. So all of your incredible academic goals for them are going to be really hard to accomplish. I know that’s not how any of us imagined our classroom when we decided to become teachers. We became teachers to be creative, have fun with kids, and change lives. But too many ...
Jan 21, 2020•14 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! Okay, let me ask you, have you ever wanted to have just more fun in your ELA classroom, but thought to yourself, “Well, I’m not creative enough to come up with a fun lesson. Or, "I don’t have the time for creating all the materials for an engaging lesson.” You know, those thoughts that hold us back? But still, deep down you know you want to have more fun in your classroom with your students and with your lessons. Well, one of the biggest objections we s...
Jan 14, 2020•14 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! As a long-time writing teacher and instructional coach, I’ve learned about this great debate among ELA educators: to provide sentence starters or to not provide sentence starters. I’ve been shocked to hear that many teachers are very resistant to using sentence starters because they have the belief that sentence starters make students’ writing “too easy, too formulaic, or too boring.” But I have one question for you. What’s the alternative? This episode...
Jan 07, 2020•20 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! As we round out 2019, let's talk about how our limiting beliefs are holding us back from being the best version of ourselves, and ultimately, the best teacher for our students. This episode is short, but powerful, and we urge you to spend some time thinking about what we've brought up and the questions that we leave you with. How can you show up in 2020 that will have the biggest impact in your classroom? Links mentioned in this episode: ebacademics.com...
Dec 31, 2019•12 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! As teachers, of course, we’re constantly adjusting our lessons and even our curriculum. There’s a last minute assembly we have to attend, so our Socratic seminar for Wednesday is rescheduled or the short story we chose for our kids totally backfired and there was little engagement, so we’re scratching it for next year. We’ve grown used to this aspect of our profession. But, what about the things that we need to change that we may not even realize need c...
Dec 24, 2019•24 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! In today's bonus episode Tara, one of the teachers in our Online Professional Development Course Writing Instruction: A Proven Approach, outlines what it was like for her moving from elementary school to middle school English Language Arts and writing. Her journey is one so many teachers can relate to, as many of us are asked to change grade levels throughout the course of our careers. Tara shares why she chose to dive right into the EBW Approach and wh...
Dec 19, 2019•25 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! In today's episode Sarah, one of our students in our Online Professional Development Course, Writing Instruction: A Proven Approach, outlines the many successes she's seen in her classroom as a result of using the EBW Framework and the entire EBW Approach. Sarah mentions one of the biggest game-changers for her, TAG, and why she can't imagine teaching this first sentence of an essay any other way. We'd love to invite you to join us in our Free Live Trai...
Dec 17, 2019•30 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! Join me in this bonus episode while I interview one of our EB Teachers, Amy Cawthon, who has been implementing and successfully utilizing our EBW Framework with her middle school students. Amy discusses many of the struggles she used to face as a writing teacher and how her students' writing has transformed in just a four short months. Links mentioned in this episode: ebacademics.com/writingwaitlist Are you enjoying the podcast? Tag us @ebacademics and ...
Dec 12, 2019•24 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! Jennifer, a second year high school English teacher, shares her journey of being hired 5 days before the first day of school to where she is now in her second year - a much more confident writing teacher. Her journey is one focused on inspiration, growth, self-realization, and taking the initiative. Links mentioned in this episode: ebacademics.com/writingwaitlist Are you enjoying the podcast? Tag us @ebacademics and let us know which episode you're list...
Dec 10, 2019•21 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! Nancy's journey as a writing teacher is one that shows us the beauty in what is possible for us as teachers. When we want to grow, when we see the opportunity for change, and when we come from the mindset of what IS possible, everything can change for us and for our students. Links mentioned in this episode: ebacademics.com/writingwaitlist Book mentioned in this episode: The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise Are you enjoying the podcast? Tag us @ebac...
Dec 03, 2019•22 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! This episode is extra special as both Jessica and I share our teaching stories with you. From bad teaching experiences to great principals, quitting teaching and the in-between, we're sharing the whole enchilada with you. Links mentioned in this episode: ebacademics.com/writingwaitlist Are you enjoying the podcast? Tag us @ebacademics and let us know which episode you're listening to! Make sure to Subscribe and leave us a Review! Your review helps us re...
Nov 26, 2019•18 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! Do you know what sucks? Grading crappy student writing. There. I said it. But I’m guessing you didn’t need me to tell you that. You’ve probably been there, and I have too. I know the emotional roller coaster and tremendous time suck that accompanies scoring this kind of writing. Fortunately, this week's episode is all about what we can do to combat this elephant in the room. Let's dig in together! Links mentioned in this episode: ebacademics.com/writing...
Nov 19, 2019•18 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! It is very possible that today’s podcast episode will completely contradict a major component of the way you teach literary analysis. In the episode, we reveal our third game-changing strategy for teaching evidence-based writing, and we’re asking you to take a breath, suspend judgement for a moment, and allow us to walk you through exactly why we believe in this strategy, even though it goes against the grain. Links mentioned in this episode: ebacademic...
Nov 12, 2019•16 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! This episode is the second part of our Mini Series PD for Evidence-Based Writing on the podcast. In this episode, we'll be covering the idea of eliminating writer's block. All too often, we can make the mistake of solely relying on teaching "hook," and this gets our students STUCK. Use this simple and incredibly effective strategy to completely eliminate writer's block and give your students the confidence to write a kick-a** paper! Links mentioned in t...
Nov 05, 2019•16 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! This episode kicks off a Mini Series PD for Evidence-Based Writing on the podcast. In this first episode, I'll be talking all about how you can hook your students and get them interested and engaged with evidence-based writing (also known as literary analysis writing) through a fun detective activity. Links mentioned in this episode: ebacademics.com/memberwaitlist Are you enjoying the podcast? Tag us @ebacademics and let us know which episode you're lis...
Oct 29, 2019•12 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! In today's episode we have Jenna Copper from Doc Cop Teaching to share exactly how we can effectively utilize picture books in our middle school ELA classrooms to enhance our current curriculum. Links mentioned in today's episode: Jenna's VIP Library: ebacademics.com/jennapodcast Jenna on Instagram We would love to hear from you! Please take a moment to leave us a review in iTunes. Your review helps us reach even more Middle School ELA Teachers just lik...
Oct 22, 2019•26 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! In today's episode we're talking all about vocabulary with Melissa from Reading and Writing Haven. She's going to help us with different strategies, fun and engaging ideas, and just an overall approach that we should consider adopting in our own classrooms. Links mentioned in today's episode: Melissa's Blog Post about Vocabulary: ebacademics.com/melissapodcast Flocabulary Melissa on Instagram and Twitter To learn more about The EB Teachers' Club and bec...
Oct 15, 2019•32 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! This episode gives us a glimpse into another Middle School ELA Teacher's classroom. Ashli Cassidy is a 6th, 7th, and 8th Grade ELA Teacher from New Jersey. She shares with us some great strategies that have been working well for her this year as well as lesson plan ideas that we can take back to our own classrooms. Ashli is also a member of our EB Teachers' Club. To learn more about The EB Teachers' Club, add your name to the waitlist, and grab a FREE s...
Oct 08, 2019•38 min
I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text! This is SUCH a great episode that walks you through the how and WHY for bringing podcasts into your Middle School ELA classroom. Ashley Bible from Building Book Love is here to teach us everything we need to know. She even has a great blog post all about podcasts with an incredibly helpful free download for you to utilize as well. Check out her blog post here: ebacademics.com/ashleypodcast Make sure you also grab a copy of our FREE ebook called Your Bal...
Oct 01, 2019•33 min
