Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! In my English and writing courses, I always love to share the following Anne Lamott quote with students: “…writing needs to breathe and move.” To further expand on this quote, I explain that writing cannot be constricted in a […]
Literacy
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
7 Picture Books for Earth Day That Aren’t The Lorax
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! Each year on Earth Day comes elementary school teachers across the U.S. pull out The Lorax and other tried and true read alouds. Many elementary teachers – a group that is disproportionately white women – tend to gravitate towards […]
Posted inPedagogy
Red Light! It’s Time to Take Digital Literacy Seriously
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! Several months ago, my fifth-grade class asked me to play Red Light, Green Light. Not typically a game my fifth graders request, it came as a surprise. Later that week I watched the first episode of a very grown-up […]
Posted inPedagogy
Justice Jackson and Romeo & Juliet (and Taylor Swift too!)
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! We can celebrate the historic confirmation of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and educate our students about many subjects at the same time! My favorite arguments from the newest U.S. Supreme Court Justice are not from any of the important cases she […]
Posted inPedagogy
How to Use Social Justice Picture Books With High Schoolers
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! Picture books are colorful, vibrant, and creative…so let’s not ditch them after chapter books come along! As a parent I have re-discovered my love of some classic picture books, but mostly, I am discovering a vast new world of modern children’s literature. Many […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Literacy Matters and We Need to Start Acting Like It
The aha moment hit me nearly two months too late. For weeks, I had been working with one of our SPED teachers to figure out how to get students to turn in their work. After years of effectively managing my classes through meaningful work with clear deadlines, I was overwhelmed by the number of student […]
Posted inAsk a Teacher
And a Podcast Shall Inform The Students
Could podcasts kill the video star? “What the ____ is a podcast?” An eleventh-grade student who would go on to be accepted at an Ivy League school asked this question in response to my question: “OK, guys, how do y’all feel about creating a podcast?” Don’t get the idea that this interaction took place “back […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
A Millennial Librarian Wants to Change How We View the Library
Jessica Fitzpatrick is a high school librarian in Houston and is in her eighth year of education. She holds a Bachelor of Science in elementary education from the University of Houston and a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of North Texas. She is the 2020 TLA Branding Award Winner for Community […]