Word walls can be a powerful tool in any classroom. Several years ago I made the switch to an interactive word wall and never looked back. Let me tell you why. My first year of teaching I created this huge word wall display that took up an entire wall. I think I put less than 10 words up on it… Read More

Hey there! Welcome back to part 3 of my vocabulary series where we are focusing on creating meaningful vocabulary instruction. In this series, I am walking though Marzano’s Six Step Process for teaching vocabulary. They are: Describe and Explain Restate and Explain in their OWN words. Create a Drawing Enrich and Explain their Knowledge (synonyms, antonyms, prefixes, etc…) Collaborate with… Read More

Hey there! Welcome back to part 2 of my vocabulary series where we are focusing on creating effective instruction through meaningful vocabulary activities, including creating vocabulary pictures. In part one of this series, I introduced Marzano’s Six Step Process for teaching vocabulary. They are: Describe and explain Restate and Explain in their OWN words.  Create a Drawing. Enrich and Expand… Read More

Hey there, friend! I don’t know about you but I’m tired of spending hours upon hours on student assessments and analyzing data. Let’s not forget about all the paperwork that goes along with that. Then you have to keep up with said paperwork to take to parent conferences and RTI meetings. IT IS A LOT OF WORK! What if I told… Read More

The holidays are quickly approaching and we all know that it can be a crazy time in the classroom. I choose to embrace the chaos that is the month of December and enjoy it with some silly elf fun. Today I am sharing 15 ideas and tricks for your classroom elf to do.  I always have our classroom elf appear… Read More