I write this the week before school begins, closing out another week of professional development and classroom setup. Since I didn't have to move classrooms or take everything down for renovation, classroom setup was relatively simple and gave me a chance to enhance my room from last year. My goals ...
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Tips For Balancing The Workload Among Multiple Preps
You may be the most organized and well-prepared teacher in the world…until you’re juggling balancing multiple preps. When I first started at my current school I was responsible for seven different ELA courses in a school year, five different preps each semester. My first year felt like a marathon ...
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Tips For Establishing Your Classroom Culture
It doesn’t matter if you’re fresh out of college, back from a career hiatus, or a teaching veteran: teaching new students is always nerve-wracking. I’m about to enter my 17th year of teaching and I still get nervous on the first day of school. I don’t get nervous with my upperclassmen, however, but ...
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Breaking Down the 2022 AP Literature Open Question Titles
It's time to analyze the titles listed for question 3 of the 2022 AP English Lit exam! Many AP Lit teachers use this list to inform their purchases for classroom libraries, student reading suggestions, and of course, personal reading ideas! The 2022 exam included 17 titles included that had never ...
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10 Engaging Poems for Students Who Hate Poetry
I write this knowing there are tens of thousands of poems for you to choose from when planning your poetry lessons. However, in my 16 years of teaching poetry to 9-12 grade students, I’ve identified some that are too tough, unrelatable, or just plain boring. These poems are the opposite: some that ...
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The Best of William Shakespeare: My Top Ten
I’ve been teaching Shakespeare’s plays since I was first hired as an English teacher, 16 years ago. In that time, I’ve taught his works in several English classes, but now most of my Shakespeare texts live in my popular elective, Shakespearean Literature.In my 15 years of experience, I’ve grown to ...
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