Resources
Professional Development
Find below links to our "Survive and Thrive" professional development sessions focused around keeping our teachers in the classroom. We meet once a month during the school year and for multi-day planning sessions in the summer.
June 2023: Classroom Management & Building Community
July 2023: Classroom Routines and Procedures
August 2023: Planning Days
September 2023: Setting Boundaries and Finding Non-negotiables
November 2023: Managing the Workload
Noteworthy ELA Blogs
Cult of Pedagogy: Jennifer Gonzalez is at the top of this list for a reason. Her site has a blog, videos, a store, podcasts and more. She talks about everything from instruction to classroom management to technology. Her site includes the immediately useful as well as food for your teacher's soul.
Ethical ELA: Sarah J. Donovan has a PhD in English and she still teaches junior high ELA. Her content is immediately useful and focused on reading and writing. She has some really great stuff on poetry. Check out her posts on grading.
Pernille Ripp: Pernille has a few great books out on Reading/Writing workshop as well as reading aloud in the upper grades. She is very reflective on what goes on in her classroom as well as her home life. Some of the highlights include her information on her Global Read Aloud and her book lists.
Mud and Ink Teaching: This website is run by English teacher Amanda Cardenas. She creates beautiful content with a focus on inquiry-driven instruction. Her blogs also come in the form of a podcast, and, in conjunction with Brave New Teaching (below), she offers a few courses on a variety of subjects.
Brave New Teaching: This is a place for teachers who want to "challenge the status quo." They have some great pedagogy, anti-racist literacy and teaching ideas as well as a FREE Shakespeare festival every year.
Two Writing Teachers: This site is run by more than two writing teachers, but they are some great writing teachers. They even have some published works among them. There are some great blog entries on classroom instruction, but they also do a Slice of Life Tuesday where they post a writing prompt for teachers (because we should be writing, too, right?).
Nerdy Book Club: THE BEST resource for information on book lists and upcoming books. The posts are written by a variety of people: authors, teachers, other ELA professionals. They are also associated with the original nErD Camp in Michigan, a great teacher-run PD opportunity for the price of FREE!
Moving Writers: The authors of this blog are responsible for the book Writing with Mentors and their site generally follows that content. There are some great writing instruction resources. The best part of this site is the access to a plethora of mentor texts in a Google Drive folder. This site is also home to the subscription-based community called "Inside the Blended Workshop." This subscription offers a monthly blog/podcast, downloadable resources, and access to a support Facebook page. They focus on content helpful to teachers now (digital notebooks, flipped classrooms, etc.).
Dave Stuart, Jr.: Dave is a dynamic teacher of both English AND Social Studies for 9th graders. He has revamped Kelly Gallagher's Article of the Week and has some really great resources for public speaking (Pop-Up Debates).
Go Poems: This is a daily blog leading up to and during the month of April. It provides daily prompts, poems by published poets, and examples for the classroom. Highly recommend this during National Poetry Month!
Other Great Websites for Teachers
Penny Kittle: Outside of Penny's absolutely inspiring work in her books, she has some more great content on her website. There is a lot here for writing and reading workshop as well as links to her Book Love Foundation grant application and information about her wonderful Summer Book Love Group, a summer PD opportunity that is run through FaceBook and Goodreads.
Kelly Gallagher: Fan of the Article of the Week? You can literally steal Kelly Gallagher's! You can also find his (somewhat outdated) blog and information about faculty book clubs.
Smart Classroom Management: This website is great for just what it claims: classroom management. There is a wealth of information here, including everything from dealing with a single difficult student to a whole class of unruly hooligans.
Seth Perler: Do you have a student or two that just can't seem to keep it together? They struggle to find their assignments in their chaos of a book bag, never seem to have their homework done, and yet they are bright and capable? This is your guy. Also, a great resource to give parents.
40 Hour Teacher Work Week: WARNING! This requires a subscription, but it is WELL worth the money if you are working more than 50 hours a week just to keep your head above water. There is some great content to make your classroom more effective, efficient, and meaningful for everyone involved. They take in new members in January and June.
Laurence McKinley Gould Library: This site includes a great MLA 9 graphic to help you and your students format citations.
Todd's Brain: This is a great overall site for interesting education-related research, strategies, and tips and tricks. He sends out weekly emails with new information. Check out his Brain Blasts, info graphics packed with some of his best information.