We want students to retain what we are teaching them. A great way to do this is by using videos! And what’s better than that, is a video with music! Typically, I play a video at the beginning or the end of the lesson. I will play it either as an introduction to what we are going to learn or […]
10 Best Short Videos for Teaching Phonics Rules
The Most Important Thing for Increasing Reading Fluency
I hope everyone got the opportunity to get some much needed R&R over Spring Break! If your Spring Break just started, lucky you! Well, I am back to work tomorrow and looking forward to it for the most part. I don’t love getting up early, but I do love working with my students. And with that, I want to share […]
The Importance of Teaching Syllable Types
I was not familiar with syllable types until recently. Reading came naturally to me, so I never really thought about words and word parts having a finite amount of combinations that can be taught. After beginning training in LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) last year, I was introduced to the 6 syllable types. Teaching the 6 […]
5 Eggs-cellent Easter Read Alouds
Easter is only a couple weeks away! It’s unbelievable that Easter is on the last day of March this year! I haven’t even worn my green for St. Patrick’s Day yet and I’m thinking about Easter. With thoughts of Easter, it’s time to share my book list of Eggs-cellent Easter read-alouds! 1. How to Catch the Easter Bunny by Adam […]
10 Essentials for Sub Plans
This past week my school was short a few subs, which means I had to pitch in and sub for a couple hours in one of the classrooms. I haven’t substitute taught in many years. Substituting this past week reminded me that there is some essential information that needs to be included in sub plans to make the day run […]
5 Ways to Maximize Your Teacher Work Day
Have you ever at the end of a teacher work day thought to yourself, “I barely got anything accomplished today. Where did the time go?” It has happened to me a time or two, or more, until I started doing these 5 things! Now, I get a mountain of work done during my teacher work days with only a small […]
March is Reading Month: 10 Awesome Activities
March starts at the end of next week and that means my school is gearing up for March is Reading Month! Obviously, as a reading interventionist, Reading Month is one of my favorite times of the year! I’ll take any opportunity to show students that reading can be fun! During March is Reading Month, National Read Across America Day and […]
8 Books for Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day
St. Patrick’s Day is March 17th, which happens to fall on a Sunday this year. Even though it is over a weekend, that doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate the holiday with your students, either the Friday before or the Monday after! Everyone can dress in green, you could eat green foods, do a rainbow experiment, hunt for gold coins, or […]
8 Last Minute “Oh Crap, It’s Valentine’s Day!” Activities
I can’t believe Valentine’s Day is Tuesday! Now that January has FINALLY ended, February seems to be flying by! With that, I’m going to share some easy to prepare last minute Valentine’s Day activities. That way just in case you forgot or just didn’t have the time to get something together, you’ll have something fun for your students to do […]
Using Data Effectively
The middle of the year is an excellent time to look at your students’ data and analyze it! I agree with most educators that there is too much testing in schools. However since we have this data, we should use it! I know using the words “data” and “analyze” in the first sentence of this post may have you cringing, […]