Teaching Tips
I love teaching and I love learning new ways to improve my practice. I hope you will join my professional learning network so we can learn from each other. Browse through the lessons and teaching tips I have discovered through my decades in the classroom working with students at every level. I also recommend that you check out the guides which offer a more in-depth look at a wide range of topics.
The following posts offer hacks, strategies, and tools to make classroom life easier and more effective.
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- (Re)Orientation
- Conversation Tables: An interactive annotated bibliography
- What Happens When Life Forces Your Class Online?
- Gaming the Teaching of Writing
- 3 Ways This I Believe Essays Support Writing Instruction
- Final Reflections
- 3 Ways To Challenge How Students Think About Writing
- Using Student-Developed Standards To Assess Writing
- Why I Made My Composition Classes Textbook-Free Zones
- Slam Poetry & Arguments
- 3 Tips To Support Peer Review
- Writing Our Future: American Creed
- 3 reasons I love teaching hybrid courses
- 3 reasons to teach with American Creed
- Infographic Icebreakers
- Handcrafted Icebreakers
- Studying American Literacy
- The Grade Conference Transition
- Less is More
- 3 Reasons You Should Bring Games Into Your Classroom
- Games Set Stage For Serious Rhetorical Work
- The Secret Ingredient For Teaching Success
- Gaming the System
- The Writer is the Goal
- Oh, Snap: 3 Reasons To Snap In Class
- 3 Writing Lessons We Learned From Games
- Making the Grade
- Exploring the American Dream
- 3 Ways To Draft A Literacy Narrative
- Seat Time is Not Pedagogy
- Is the American Dream Dead or Alive?
- 3 Reasons I Love HyperDocs
- Creeds and Comics
- In Defense of Rubrics
- What Does Writing Workshop Look Like?
- 3 Flavors of Literacy Narrative: Picking the right one for your class
- 3 Reasons You Should Focus On Class Community
- Students Don’t Need “Our” Writing Rules
- Pick 1 Thing: 3 Reasons You Must Know Your Endgame
- Empathy and Respect: Seeing Our Students As People
- What is Your Endgame? Passion or Commitment
- Don’t Reward Clock Watchers
- Visual literacy: Fake flyers, protest signs, and demotivational posters
- Notable Notes: #HyperDocs
- Classroom Badges Update
- Source Sandwiches: Teaching students how to integrate evidence
- Jumping Into Arguments About Literacy and Education
- Gamification: Second edition
- Badges and Student Choice
- Notable Notes: Usability Tests vs. Peer Review
- 3 Reasons to Use Paper Prototypes in the Classroom
- 3 Tips To Help Students Find #PBL Ideas
- Icebreaker Arguments Reprised
- 3 Ways Bell Ringers Will Improve Your Class
- 3 Reasons to (Re)Write the Literacy Narrative
- Why I #LoveTeaching
- 3 Multiple Prep Survival Tips
- Grading With Badges Revisited
- 3 Reasons to Assign Infographics
- Using the Walking Dead to Teach Ethics
- Building Projects Using #6Words Stories
- Why Are We Here?
- Breaking the Ice with an Argument
- Starting The Year Off Write
- Teaching In #6Words
- 3 reasons you should build assessments as a class
- 3 reasons why you should practice metateaching
- Easing The Pain Of Grading
- Is Your Elevator Pitch Ready?
- The Benefits of Service Learning
- 3 Benefits Of Teaching With (or Through) Social Media
- 3 Reasons You Need PBL
- My Secret Formula to Facilitate Reflection and Workshop
- Why Self-Assessment Journals?
- Dear Students
- The Group Learning Document
- Paper Trails: My Alternative to the Annotated Bibliography
- Students Respect the Badge
- Why My Students Must Blog
- Community Doesn’t Just Happen
- We Need More Writers: What are you going to do about it?
- Teachers: Don’t Forget The Most Important Writer Is You
- Technology: Silver Bullet or Amazing Race?
- Did you ever think it might be the assignment?
- Grading Using Google Forms
- You Can’t Teach the Writing Process: How to Make Writers by Showing Not Telling
- 10 Ways Literacy Narratives Will Rock Your World (or at least your writing classroom)
- Education is about the journey, not the destination
- Radical Idea: What if we stopped teaching writing?
- You can assign writing and avoid a grading avalanche
- Teachers: Expose Yourself and Show Your Work
- Considering Contract Grading and the Class Blog
- Why video assignments?
- What Can You Learn From And About Your Students?
- Challenging your pedagogy and maybe even your program
- Inspiring writing, learning in six words
- Feedback Loops & Writing Workshop
- Why Writing Studio?
- Which Comes First For You: The Spirit or the Letter of the Law?
- Students Say Multiple Connections Make Learning Better and More Fun