Category: Uncategorized

Top Tips for the New Google Classroom

About to start using Google Classroom again this year but worried that there are some changes? Well first off, don’t worry, because they aren’t too significant, and second, I’m going to walk you through them!  Here’s what it looks like when you open up your class first. At first glance,

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Teaching with a Chronic Illness or Disease

I have considered writing this blog post for a few years and recently decided it was time to share. As most of you know, I have been teaching second grade for twenty years and I also am a certified reading specialist. What most of you don’t know is that when

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7 Movies about Teaching

After a long day or draining week of teaching, sometimes you just want to put on the TV and press play on a show or movie. Isn’t it a little weird sometimes to watch movies with teachers or about teaching? It can be fun, but sometimes not too relaxing. You

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Fall Writing Prompt Freebie!

I know some of you have actually started back to school ALREADY and are thinking fall. I have 5 weeks left but I am still thinking: How do I get my students engaged in writing this fall? Well, I created this writing prompt to help! You can download this writing

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5 FAQs about Assessments with Google Classroom

YES! They sure are! If you are making your own quiz, or if you bought a self-grading quiz from somewhere like Teachers Pay Teachers, as long as the “quiz” option was selected, and correct answers were assigned when the quiz was created, then at the end, the student can choose

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Supplies Every New Teacher Needs

This year, I felt for some reason like I was drawing a blank when it was back to school time and I was trying to think of what I needed to make sure I had. I also was mentoring a new teacher so I was trying to be organized. After

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How to get Organized with Parent Communication

Parent communication can be complicated, can’t it? When I started teaching in 1997, these were the methods of parent communication: handwritten notes/memos, phone calls, and one or both of those were needed to arrange the third type of communication: in person meetings! Now it’s a whole new, complicated, ball game!

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Reasons Why You are So Tired After School

We all know that teachers go home exhausted every day and it is probably is just “the way it is” for all of us. At the end of last year, I was more exhausted than I had ever been and it took me a long time to decompress during the

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Ways to Help a Classroom after a Disaster

It’s been an extremely difficult few weeks for the millions of folks who have been affected by Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma. The storms also coincided with back to school so many teachers have been wondering – how do I help? Or what can my school/classroom do to help? Since

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25 More Pop Songs to Use with Students

I love music – I love listening to it, singing along, and I play a bunch of instruments too… and I love to share music and incorporate music with my second grade students. Plus, many of my friends have young kids and I know parents are always trying to find

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