Latest posts
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The Performative PD Problem: Why Professional Development Is Broken and What You Can Do About It
Let me tell you about three professional development experiences from my career. All different content, yet one common thread endures. My very first PD session as a first-year teacher was a video about working with special education students. It used language and terminology that had been considered outdated for years. Nobody in the room flagged…
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The Flight Safety Card Activity: What Stick Figures and Oxygen Masks Can Teach Your Students About What Actually Matters
Brief Update! Oh man, nothing like getting injured and sick as heck in the last 10 days of school. For the first time in AGES, I had to leave school last week because I fell physically ill (after making it to my second-floor classroom on crutches nonetheless! But, I’m back to about 90%, we’ve got…
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You Got Your Chocolate in My Peanut Butter: The Craigslist Missed Connections Classroom Activity
There is a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercial that lives rent-free in my brain. It is one of those commercial gems that then morphs into other shower-thought style derivations. You probably know the one. Two people walking toward each other, completely oblivious. One has chocolate. One has peanut butter. They collide. And the result is…
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Recess Isn’t a Break From Learning. It IS Learning. And We Forgot.
Sorry for no post on Wednesday, I’m dealing with one of those lovely “spring flus” and my body waged war against itself….but I’m back today! Your next Visible Thinking Routines post will be out next Wednesday!! I grew up in the era of giant maps painted on blacktop (the sweetness of the 90’s amirite?). My…
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Make Your Students Earn Their Investments with Jumpstarter and Teacheon (New Classroom Templates!)
Last Monday, I shared the GoFundMe in the Ditch That Textbook online community. (You should definitely join!!!) When I shared it, I described it as “an off-the-rails idea for a ‘social media’ template,” and a “shower thought meets asking Claude some questions meets Canva during my plan.” I expected some nice engagement. Maybe a few…
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The GoFundMe Activity: Crowdfunding Mastery in Any Content Area (Classroom Template Included!)
As you may have noticed, I’ve continued combing the wide world of the internet to find social media and/or website templates to manipulate into a tool for students to showcase their content mastery. While I’ve typically grabbed “safe” websites that feel like they have an obvious connection, today’s is something that came at me from…
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The Funko Pop Summary: Where Biography Meets Box Art
Let me tell you something about my office. It is covered in Funko Pops. Floor to ceiling, shelf to shelf, every available surface. I have lost count of how many I own, but the number is somewhere north of embarrassing and south of intervention. My classroom alone has roughly thirty of them staring at my…
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…But Why are we Interviewing a Comma?
In 2008, American rock band Vampire Weekend shook the world by asking one simple question…” Who gives a F$%K about an Oxford Comma?” and my brain immediately thought two things: I do… What does the Oxford Comma feel about this song? I cannot be the only person who asks hard-hitting questions like this. I definitely…
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The Taboo Lecture!?!?!?!
Some of ya’ll may remember the game, but not the amazing commercial. As someone who’s obsessed with communication and language, one of my classroom staples has always been the physical game Taboo! The premise is simple. Get your teammates to guess a word or concept, but you cannot say any of the words on the…
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Stop the Scroll! How to Hijack Social Media Hooks to Level Up Bellringers and Exit Tickets!
We are in the middle of our 2nd day back from Spring Break, and getting the kids to re-engage is a struggle. How do we take them from 9 days of freedom and lock them back into the rigors and routines of a school day? If my students spent any part of their break as…