Summer always seems to go too fast and this summer is certainly no exception. My thoughts and actions have been completely consumed by our house remodel, which is still underway. We began in June and I was naive enough to think that we would be finished by the time I returned to school in August. … [Read more…]
The EDVIEW360 podcast from Voyager Sopris recently released a stellar episode featuring two of education’s greats: Dr. Anita Archer and Dr. Louisa Moats. The world is a better place because of these two individuals. Their work has resulted in and will continue to result in high levels of learning for teachers and students everywhere. I … [Read more…]
100% This post was 100% inspired by the three literacy leaders I affectionately call “The Trifecta,” Stacy Hurst, Lindsay Kemeny, and Donell Pons, hosts of Reading Horizons’ Literacy Talks podcast. In Episode 6 of Season 3, Reading: The Numbers Help Tell the Stories, The Trifecta focuses on the irony of how many numbers are involved … [Read more…]
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…]
More Work to Do Yesterday, I found myself being frustrated at a social media post that expressed a less-than-favorable opinion of the EL Education curriculum, specific to the Modules. As I read the equally unfavorable comments that poured in after the original post, my heart sank. I felt like I was sitting on a cracking … [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…]
On Monday night of this past week, I had the opportunity to present to the FMCSD School Board. This is a five-minute slot on the board agenda given to our coaching staff each month. In other words, all eight instructional coaches get the chance to present to the board once throughout the year. Monday night … [Read more…]
I did not intend for this blog to be a confessional, yet I feel compelled to confess to yet another of my many missteps in the classroom, this time around spelling instruction. In the January 5, 2021 Psychology Today article “Why Spelling Instruction Should Be Hot in 2021,” J. Richard Gentry highlights the current research … [Read more…]
That’s wildly inappropriate for many, many reasons, but it brings up a big selling point of #balancedliteracy: If we just surround children with books and reading they will learn to read. This is a beautiful, terrible lie. — Briar in Blue (@auroraworeblue) January 1, 2021 This series of tweets prompted some thinking about misplaced blame … [Read more…]