The Learning Journey As I’ve written before, I’ve dedicated much of the last four years of my life to learning about the Science of Reading. Four years in, I fully recognize that there is much, much more to learn – from the body of research that currently exists, and from the body of research that … [Read more…]
Literacy Advocates Take Action Emily Hanford has done it again. She and colleague, Christopher Peak, have poured blood, sweat, and tears into the podcast, Sold a Story, that reveals, once again, the cause of the literacy crisis in America. Hanford is the reason that I, and so many others, have shifted our way of thinking … [Read more…]
This has been one busy summer so far, and we’ve only just reached the halfway mark! In all of this business, I’ve taken an unplanned three-week hiatus from writing. The blog hasn’t been far from my mind by any means, I just haven’t set aside the time to finish this post that was started three … [Read more…]
Just last week, I referenced my frustration with educators who focus on what their students cannot do, rather than what they can do. In the last several days, I came to the realization that I may be doing the very same thing when thinking about educators: I can fall in the trap of focusing on … [Read more…]
Experiments Several years ago, when I was teaching 6th grade, I began experimenting with standards-based grading. I was actually running two experiments simultaneously: by myself in my 6th grade reading classes, and with my 6th grade team in our English classes (yep, we identified reading and English as two separate classes – uggghhh!), under the … [Read more…]
Fort Madison Community School District is incredibly fortunate to have partnered with Four Oaks, an Iowa organization “…committed to helping children and families through their struggles…” The support that we receive from Four Oaks includes receiving professional development around trauma-informed care. We have a group of “trauma champions” that receive more intensive training, sharing our … [Read more…]