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As learners ourselves, we know students need a supportive culture where taking risks, asking questions, and understanding the value of the process is omnipresent.

The young writers sitting in our classroom will rise above the fears and struggles of being a writer, but it will take intentional planning, repetitive teaching, daily writing, and reteaching. Writing is hard work. Students don't become writers because we have writing workshop. Writers become writers because teachers have clear intentions and a vision of what's possible.

What teacher of writers superpower would you like to develop this year?

My fourth grade self's advice, my grandmother's influence, participating in the Literacy Leaders' Forum, and even a Facebook quiz and a fortune cookie have all pointed me in the direction of my One Little Word for 2016...HAPPY.

These four titles are inspirational and useful resources for teachers. Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win one of them.

Five things I'm reading, enjoying, and thinking about this Friday.

Clear, specific feedback helps children view themselves in a positive light in the learning environment and in life.

Interactive Modeling: A Powerful Technique for Teaching Children teaches us how to use interactive modeling to teach a variety of classroom routines, behaviors, and skills in an engaging way that shows students what to do while providing them with a safe space to practice.

The first six weeks of school is about providing structure for students.  Teachers who are too lenient never seem to gain control of their class while teachers who are too rigid risk the… Read More →

I’ve learned the importance of communicating clearly with students through the Responsive Classroom training I’ve had and books I’ve read about teacher-talk.  One book that resonated with me several years ago was Choice Words: How Our Language Affects Children’s Learning by Peter H. Johnston.  In his book, Johnston made me think deeply about the words [...]

For the nearly 20 years, Lisa Dewey Wells has taught early childhood (three-year-olds through third grade) at independent schools in Massachusetts, New York and Maryland, including the past 12 years at St. Anne’s School of Annapolis.  Her passion for teaching includes a commitment to knowing each learner as an individual and creating a classroom community [...]

When I was a classroom teacher I had my fair share of challenging students.  Through the years I taught had quite a few students with social-emotional issues, learning disabilities, and discipline problems.  I’ve had students hide underneath desks, crawl on the floor of the classroom, and who’ve screamed at classmates when things haven’t gone their [...]

This-coming weeks marks the time of the year that I recall a few of my former students falling apart.  Why?  Thanksgiving, which marks the beginning of the holiday season, falls out in the last week of November.  When I was in the classroom I quickly came to learn that any child who had a home [...]

I’ve been doing Pilates since August 2008.  I started it in order to get stronger after some surgery I had in 2007.  I’ve been doing it three times a week for the past few months.  While I have nothing even close to Madonna’s physique, I have certainly become stronger.  My Pilates Instructor is very cautious [...]

Each week I receive, The Big Fresh, an e-newsletter from Choice Literacy.  This week’s feature is entitled “There’s Room for Me Here.” As I began reading through the article, it resonated with the Responsive Classroom Training I received three summers ago.  Essentially, the bottom line is to make your classroom feel welcoming for your students, [...]

My Hope and Dream Letter Originally uploaded by teachergal I can hardly believe there’s only five school days left even though I’ve been going through my students’ end of the year reflection letters, and responding to each of them in writing, this past week. It takes awhile to do it well. Therefore, this is the [...]

I’ve noticed that a post I wrote last June, about letters I have my students write to me at the end of each school year, has been getting a lot of clicks lately. Since it seems like a lot of people are looking for ideas with how to end the school year with the same fanfare [...]

Katherine Bomer said, “Writing celebration is the most important part of the writing process” (TCRWP Key Note Address, 7/8/08). Bomer suggests that this is because every writer writes for the purpose of having someone listen to what they’ve written. Therefore, when students share their writing with their peers at the end of [...]

Ever feel like you need more time for grammar instruction, but just can’t seem to find the time? That’s certainly how my colleagues and I feel. Hence, one of them went off on a search for a solution. I think she found it. The solution? Getting Grammar: 150 New Ways [...]

All warpped-up with positive social-emotional wishes Originally uploaded by teachergal This year my classroom has had an “It’s not easy being green” theme. (And yes, I felt a bit old in September when the kids informed me they weren’t familiar with that Kermit the Frog Song!) The reason is that I went back to using [...]

I spent the first few weeks of school modeling how to share during “Share Time” at Morning Meeting. I did this so that my students would have a greater sense of how I expect sharing to look. Every Wednesday, the share theme revolves around the Writer’s Notebook. Every now and then I stick in an entry [...]

Katherine Bomer talked about celebrations this past summer at the TCRWP July Writing Institute. As I was planning my News & Announcements Charts for the upcoming week today, I found myself wanting to write about writing on four out of five of them. You see, I want my students to realize that their hard [...]

When I moved to RI, I borrowed a motto from a former colleague, Halli, in New York. She had a BIG sign over her door that read, “We will work hard, but we will have fun.” I was playing around with Wordle tonight and created a scrambled motto for my class. I’m [...]

My students are starting their poetry unit of study tomorrow. Hence, all of my News & Announcements Charts for the upcoming week have something poetry-related on them:

My students are going to be drafting while I’m out of the room doing reading assessments this-coming Thursday. Hence, I’m a little bit panicked since I don’t like being out of the room on days when kids are selecting a seed idea or when they start drafting. (I have an amazing guest teacher… [...]