Thank you to Bryan Gidinski, District SOGI Support Teacher, for creating this fantastic SOGI booklist!

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Thank you to Jennifer Gonzalez for writing this thoughtful article for new teachers.  However, I think all teachers would enjoy this article.  Are you a marigold or a walnut tree?  Read on to find out!

Click here to read article

I love Donalyn Miller’s books.  She also has a great blog.  Here’s an article from a few years ago that’s worth a re-read:

Book Challenge Revisited

I really like Jennifer Serravallo’s reading conferences.  Click on the link below to watch.  Here’s what I like:

• the students are all reading different books that they have chosen. (choice is key!)
• the students have built their stamina to be able to read this quietly – this doesn’t happen right away – we need to explicitly teach it and goal set with our students to achieve this.
• the conferences are strength based.  She is noticing what each reader is doing well, and is setting goals for each reader based on where that learner is.
• this reading block is differentiated.  Students are working on different things, based on where they are in their learning.
• a love of reading is being nurtured in this environment, and isn’t that what we really want, at the end of the day?  

Click here to view compliment conferences

We are excited to have Kelsey Keller return to our school district this year for her workshop on the core competencies!  Kelsey is a teacher and consultant, who presents all over British Columbia on the revised curriculum, and has done extensive work on implementing the core competencies in her own classroom.  She will provide us with new practical and manageable strategies you will be able to use in your classrooms right away!  Attached is the poster.  Sign up on the staff development calendar.  I hope to see you there!

I had the pleasure of seeing Lori Jamison Rog present at the Literacy Summit this past weekend.  She has some practical suggestions as to how to support our struggling readers.

Struggling readers need to read MORE than other readers. 

Our strugglers have GREAT avoidance skills, such as taking a long time to choose a book, going to the bathroom during silent reading, acting out to avoid work, just to name a few.

Struggling readers need to practice sight words, as this will help with fluency when it comes to connected text.

These kids need CHOICE over their reading. 

They need time to read books that are not too difficult, AND they need tiptoe books – books that are a bit difficult, but someone is helping them with the text. 

They need to hear a lot of read alouds (all kids do!) and building their background knowledge is key. 

Here is a booklet from Lori’s workshop.  Her ideas come from her book “Struggling Readers:  Why Band-Aids Don’t Stick and Worksheets Don’t Work”.

Really, these are just great tips for ALL our students!

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There are a lot of resources that will help you teach  growth mindset that are free on Teachers Pay Teachers!  Check out this link!

click here

Thank you to all who turned out last night for our first of three book club sessions, exploring Daily 5/Daily 3.  

Here is the powerpoint from the presentation:

daily 5 session 1 powerpoint

Thank you to Faye Brownlie who shared this great analogy, comparing deeper thinking with scuba diving!