Want to see more progress in your students’ writing? Then it’s time to take a hard look at how we approach writing in your classroom. We spend a lot of time teaching skills and strategies for writing, but not every student needs work on the same skill or strategy. That’s where helping students to develop writing goals can make a huge impact . Setting individual writing goals gives purpose to student writing, and helps students to make progress on what THEY need. Goals drive instruction and serve...
Sep 13, 2021•23 min•Ep. 87
SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING. It’s such a buzzword lately, especially as teachers try to navigate the aftermath of the pandemic. Now more than ever our students are struggling socially and emotionally. Months of learning at home, isolated from teachers and friends has brought a series of issues that teachers are now learning to work through. Social emotional learning, or SEL for short, is not new, but has certainly created a new buzzword. The thing is, the social and emotional well-being of our stu...
Sep 06, 2021•25 min•Ep. 86
Dear old version of me... We all look back on your first few years of teaching and cringe at some of the things that we have done with our students. Sometimes, we just don't know any better...until we do. Now, I won’t waste your time telling you all about my mistakes, but I do want to share a few things that you can change about your teaching practices today to make a bigger impact with your students. LINKS & RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE Grab my FREE “Show What You Know Cards” in our M...
Aug 30, 2021•18 min•Ep. 85
STOP. Before you get started with readers and writers workshop this year, we need to talk. I know you want to launch into your first reading and writing unit. I know you’re anxious to start that first novel or that first writing piece with your students. It’s exciting to start fresh. BUT — before you do, don’t. Have your properly set yourself up for success when it comes to launching readers and writers workshop? Have you considered all.the.things. to make sure you have crossed all your t’s and ...
Aug 23, 2021•22 min•Ep. 84
IT CAN BE TOUGH BEING THE NEW GUY, RIGHT? You may just be beginning your teaching journey, but that doesn’t mean you have to do it alone! We’ve all been there. While you might be excited to get that first year under your belt, you’re also likely feeling overwhelmed trying to process all. the. things. But, wait. Pause. Take a deep breath. Then - listen to this week’s episode. I’m sharing what really matters as a first year teacher …and what doesn’t. What you should focus on, and what you can put ...
Aug 15, 2021•17 min•Ep. 83
TEACHERS: WANT TO THANK YOURSELF LATER? Then do yourself a favor (or two) NOW. Once the school year gets underway, teachers know just how challenging it can be to get ahead of the game. Many times it feels like we are surviving day-to-day . But - it doesn’t have to be that way! In fact, with a little thought, planning, and prepping, you could be doing yourself a HUGE favor that you’ll thank yourself later for. Putting in place a few classroom systems can reap huge benefits in the long run. In th...
Aug 09, 2021•16 min•Ep. 82
It's Back to School time! I am a self-proclaimed back to school junkie. I love everything about it. The back to school planning. Decorating my classroom. All of it. No sooner did a school year end before the wheels were already turning in my head for what that first day of school would look like. (I know, a little annoying, right? I can’t help it..) There is so much to prep and plan for that first day back, and all across America the To-Do checklists are being created and ticked off as we speak ...
Aug 02, 2021•19 min•Ep. 81
It’s go-time. Teachers - start your engines and get ready for the new school year. I don’t have to tell you that planning for a new school year is a bit of an overwhelming process. As exciting as it is, there are a lot of moving parts when it comes to getting ready for that first day of school. So let’s break it down. In this FINAL playlist of of our summer road trip, I’ll outline how you can: design your dream classroom ( and on a budget! ) get organized from top to bottom curriculum map for an...
Jul 25, 2021•25 min•Ep. 80
Most teachers have a love-hate relationship with technology. It’s true that classroom technology can help engage students like no other teaching strategy can. But - with technology comes a whole new set of challenges. And, teacher technology can be great, too. Never before have we had some many tech tools to help us get organized, manage our classroom resources, and keep our schedule in check. But again - there’s always a learning curve. So, let’s tackle some of those challenges. In this week’s ...
Jul 18, 2021•19 min•Ep. 79
We all get excited for the beginning of the school year. Those fresh pencils. Boxes of new markers. Crisp chart paper just waiting to be used. We can’t wait to dive in to all the lessons, activities, and projects that we’ve been prepping and planning. But wait. Stop right there! Before you even THINK about anything else when it comes to the new school year, let me ask you this. What’s your classroom management system? Don’t really have one? Let’s fix that. In this episode I’m focusing on classro...
Jul 11, 2021•15 min•Ep. 78
It’s no secret that if your classroom is a welcoming place for students, they’ll want to be there. Not spending enough time building a positive classroom community is one of the biggest mistakes a teacher can make. Before you can dive into learning, students need to feel safe, wanted, and a part of the group. If you crave a classroom full of students that feel like family, then this week’s summer road trip playlist is for you. Learn how to: building a community of readers (and leaders!) create a...
Jul 04, 2021•21 min•Ep. 77
If you know. You Know. Teacher life is tough to explain to someone who isn’t a teacher. We have our own language, shared struggles and triumphs - so many things that only another teacher can relate to. The teacher community is such an amazing group, filled with educators who selflessly give of themselves to their students day after day, year after year. In this episode, I’ve curated clips that we can all relate to as teachers including: how to survive a super challenging school year the 7 habits...
Jun 27, 2021•24 min•Ep. 76
Staring into a sea of glazed-over eyes is soul crushing for any teacher. All teachers aim for a classroom of engaged and excited learners - but getting there can be quite a feat. The key is to vary the WAYS that you try to engage your students. Doing one engagement strategy might work for a while, but it will eventually fall flat when the initial excitement dies down. That’s why in this week’s episode I’m sharing multiple ways that you can keep your students excited, engaged, and interacting wit...
Jun 20, 2021•15 min•Ep. 75
Writing is often hard for students and teachers alike! That’s why in this episode I’ve curated a batch of writing inspiration to help you get your writing plan in order for the upcoming school year. We’ll cover some of the most important aspects of what makes your writing instruction successful in the elementary classroom. Here’s what I’ve got in store for you in this week’s road trip play list: Learn how to start your writer’s workshop off strong right from the beginning of the school year See ...
Jun 13, 2021•21 min•Ep. 74
Jun 06, 2021•30 min
It’s time to have a little fun! Before we hit the road on our summer teacher road trip and visit some of the most popular episodes from this past school year - get to know your road trip buddy (me!). This is a fun episode! For the first time, I recorded an “Ask Me Anything” episode where I’m answering some Classroom Commute listener questions! From personal questions ( like - what’s my favorite TV show ) to teacher-related questions ( I’ll tell you why I left the classroom ) - I’m answering them...
May 30, 2021•26 min•Ep. 72
Who’s ready for a summer road trip? We’ve been carpooling together all school year long - it only makes sense that we take this show on the road and swap the classroom commute for a summer road trip! Along the way we’ll stop at some of the most popular tourist destinations (aka most popular episodes from the past school year). And what does every road trip need? An EPIC playlist ! I’ve got you covered! I’ll provide the tunes - and by tunes, I mean episodes that are packed with teacher goodness, ...
May 23, 2021•5 min•Ep. 71
HAVE YOU BEEN TEACHING THEME WRONG? Maybe. I was . For a long time. And my students struggled because of it. I’d asked students the classic prompting questions like What did the character learn? or What was the problem that the character was facing? — all good questions. However when we ask our students to take the giant leap from answering those prompts to identifying theme, we lose them. What they really need is the bridge to get from the prompt to theme. A repeatable formula that breaks the p...
May 16, 2021•22 min•Ep. 70
There's always so much to do before summer vacation. Before you can turn in your classroom keys for the summer you likely have paperwork to complete, reorganizing your classroom cabinets, closets, and drawers —all those things that got in disarray in the thick of the school year. And if you’ve ever been that last teacher out the door sailing off into summer vacay mode - then you know how painful it can be! (Trust me - I’ve been there more times than I care to count!) So, let’s not let it happen ...
May 09, 2021•8 min•Ep. 69
DOES TEACHING STUDENTS TO SYNTHESIZE FEEL LIKE PULLING TEETH? It sure does…. sometimes. But why is teaching this reading comprehension strategy so hard ? There are a number of reasons students often struggle with synthesizing. One- it’s an abstract concept . Asking students to synthesize requires more than just surface-level thinking. They have to think beyond the text in order to form a synthesis. Two - it’s a multi-level strategy . Synthesizing can’t be taught in isolation. This strategy requi...
May 02, 2021•23 min•Ep. 68
Teachers spend so.much.time on teaching fiction reading skills & strategies. But the reality is - most of our life is spent reading nonfiction text. Whether it’s a dinner recipe or a manual to try to fix the TV remote control settings that your toddler screwed up (again!) — nonfiction reading skills are not just needed for the classroom, but REAL life! We should be spending an equal amount of time on nonfiction reading skills & strategies as we do fiction. Because we read nonfiction text...
Apr 25, 2021•20 min•Ep. 67
This ain’t your grandma’s classroom. Years ago the textbook was all we had. Textbooks…and workbooks that went along with the textbook. Ew. But, we’ve come a loooong way since those days and it’s time to implement some 21st century teaching practices. So, what does that mean? It means we ditch the textbook. Now, don’t get me wrong, we can still use textbooks as a tool for teaching. It may guide us in the content that we need to teach, and may serve a purpose (a very small purpose) in the elementa...
Apr 18, 2021•22 min•Ep. 66
Do you know what students love to do? Talk. Give them a hot second to chat, and pretty quickly your classroom will be filled with conversations about video games, and sports, and whatever the latest kid-trend is. Unless you’ve asked them to talk about what books they are reading. Theeeen you often hear crickets. Kids simply don’t know how to talk about the books they are reading. They often don’t know how to discuss the characters and plot and interesting facts. Enter in: Literature Circles (or ...
Apr 11, 2021•24 min•Ep. 65
How can teachers help their students to become stronger readers? Simple. Give them the tools (aka reading comprehension strategies) to help them make sense of what they read. Ok, maybe not so simple. Teaching students these strategies does take practice, intentional instruction, and loooots of modeling . But that doesn’t mean we have to make it complicated in the way that we teach these reading strategies. When it comes to teaching comprehension strategies, like inferring, we can provide our stu...
Apr 04, 2021•18 min•Ep. 64
Writing conferences used to be a nightmare in my classroom. They usually involved me and my trusty red pen going through a students’ writing, marking it up— adding suggestion, highlighting misspelled words or missing punctuation. And, after about 5 minutes or so, I'd had the paper back to students and move on to the next student. There was no talk of writing strategies, no mention of writing goals, no modeling methods to improve student writing. Nope - just a bunch of red lines (and likely frust...
Mar 28, 2021•18 min•Ep. 63
There might be something missing from your readers and writers workshop. A Chair. Oh - not just any chair. A ‘Share Chair.’ If you’re not using a share chair in your classroom, you’re missing out - BIG TIME. There is so much power in this chair. It has the power to build a positive classroom community. It has the power to help students develop the art of accountable talk, promote student engagement — and I haven’t even mentioned the fact that it will help create stronger readers and writers (wel...
Mar 21, 2021•13 min•Ep. 62
How you end a lesson is just as important as what you do during the lesson itself. If you’ve ever spent hours prepping and planning for a lesson in your classroom (and I know you have), then after all that hard work you’re likely ready to just be done. Close the teacher planner and move on to the next task. How we end a lesson however, whether it be a mini-lesson, a whole-class activity, or even in small guided reading groups, shouldn’t be an after-thought. But - it often is. Teachers often thin...
Mar 14, 2021•12 min•Ep. 61
Students can't learn in crisis mode. Before we can teach young minds, we must first teach students to tap into their feelings and emotions. Social-emotional health is the foundation for all learning so it is impetrative that we address these needs in our students before we ask them to master academics. People today are more stressed and worried than ever before due to the pandemic and the impact that it has had on our schools is huge. And if YOU’RE feeling that way, your students are, too. The d...
Mar 07, 2021•24 min•Ep. 60
Students tend to think that everything they read is important. But - the problem with trying to remember EVERYTHING you read is that you actually end up remembering very little. Our brains can only retain so much information before it goes into overdrive, so its critical to help little brains, aka our students , develop strategies to strain out the nonessential information from the books that they read. How do we do this? It should come as no surprise when I say that we need to explicitly teach ...
Feb 28, 2021•21 min•Ep. 59
There are a lot of moving parts in the readers and writers workshop model. It takes a lot of coordination, planning, and modeling for reading and writing magic to happen. Reading and writing centers seem chaotic and mismanaged, you’re constantly being interrupted during your small groups, and students still don’t seem to know what they should be doing during independent work time. Is it really just too hard? Should you just go back to traditional whole-class teaching? Maybe. OR - you could make ...
Feb 21, 2021•20 min•Ep. 58
