Progressbook Alerts

Progressbook Alerts

After a long day of work, the last thing you think to do is check ProgressBook. But then a phone call rings in from the middle school. Apparently, your child has several missing assignments and the teacher is requesting they stay after school to complete them. Ugh! There is a way to avoid this scenario! ProgressBook allows you to set alerts that will come to your inbox when your child has a missing assignment or low mark. Setting these alerts…

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Access to Books

Access to Books

There are most likely 3,000 books in my classroom library currently. About a third of those are thanks to the retired teacher whose classroom I moved into last year. The rest of them have come from grant money, funded Donors Choose projects, Scholastic bonus points, teacher supply money, and my own personal money. Giving students access to books has always been an important part of my teaching philosophy. I started collecting books from a used bookstore when I was a…

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Reading at Home

Reading at Home

When we discussed reading accountability at the start of the school year I shared an infographic with students. It explained that reading for at least 20 minutes a day during the school year will expose them to over a million words. Exposure to words is how we all get better at reading. Vocabulary is key. Knowing the meaning of words allows us to comprehend what we read. Knowing strategies for figuring out unknown words while we read is also a…

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One Point Everyday

One Point Everyday

Welcome to a new school year! This time of year is similar to that of Christmas morning. It’s a day so many have anticipated for weeks. There are fun surprises and lots of new things happening. As a teacher, the fun happens in watching our new students participate in the lessons and activities we spent the summer creating. It’s like watching someone open a handmade gift. Teaching is our passion and we love to watch our students light up with…

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Blogging Expectations

Blogging Expectations

English Language Arts is a double class period. Generally, we will spend one period working on reading skills and one class period on writing skills. During longer projects, there may be an exception to this, but our daily routine will be spending one period on each topic. Blogging will be our weekly writing practice. For more information about why we choose blogging read this post. In addition to 4-5 extended essays, blogging will be a major part of each student’s grade….

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Why We Blog

Why We Blog

For over a decade now, blogging has become an important way for people to gather information and find solutions to their problems. Nearly every major brand with an online presence has a blog as part of their website. This is because people have started to turn to blogs for answers. When we want to know the best tips for planning a trip we turn to a travel blog. When we are searching for new recipes or trying to follow a…

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