You have a lot to do. I get it, because I do too. Here’s a little window into my ping-ponging brain to prove it (Enjoy!!): Do I write this blog that’s due tonight? Answer thousands of emails? Prepare dinner for the evening? Vacuum the crumbs staring at me from the...
Dropbox Love!
Some of you are fortunate to work in schools that provide you with a laptop or some kind of mobile productivity device. Others of you do not have such luxuries. So, outside of using flash drives, emailing documents to yourself, or keeping things in a million places,...
Transitions, Transitions, Transitions: Jenny’s Guided Reading Chart
Step into any classroom for any age at any time of day, and teachers are likely to report that transitions between activities are when they lose the most instructional time with their students. Luckily, you can read a lot more about how to run effective transitions in...
Conferring Tool #2: Evernote!
Welcome back, guest poster Shelby! Please continue to wow us with your conferring genius: There’s another great option for conferring using a Together Teacher favorite: Evernote. We’ve featured Evernote on our blog a few times and it is really...
Conferring Tool #1: Confer!
And now, a guest post from our Together Teacher Coordinator, Shelby: When I taught K-2 guided reading and writing, I was constantly looking for a better way to keep track of my conference notes. I tried binders with tabs, clipboards, notebooks… and everything else...
Make the Most of Your Week Lesson #5: Faster and Smarter
Make the Most of Your Week Lesson #5: Faster and Smarter There are many definitions of efficiency out there, but we like this one best: “accomplishment of or ability to accomplish a job with a minimum expenditure of time and effort.” Of course, there are many, many...
Making the Most of your Week Lesson #3: Using Small Pockets of Time
Are you like me? Do you sometimes find yourself completely wasting small 15 – 20 minute chunks of time? Of course, sometimes they should be wasted (see our hot chocolate post from the start of 2013). But for the most part, my orientation is to try my hardest to use...
Google: Going the Extra Mile
I recently connected with Ann Bevan H., a middle school leader at a great school in Chestnut Hill, MA. She let me in on how her school takes Google usage to a whole new level. What Beaver Country Day School thinks is so cool about technology is the way it is used to...
Overheard: Allocating Time to Plan
I recently delivered a Together Teacher professional development workshop to a great high school in Harlem. Afterwards, I spent time with the principal, Lisa F., discussing ways we could make sure the new habits would really stick. Lisa pondered for a bit, and then...
Good Organization = Good Data = Good Instruction
This post is about one of my favorite classrooms, Jenny C.’s Kindergarten in Brooklyn. I’ve known Jenny for over five years. She’s featured in my book, and she’s the type of teacher I hope my own daughter has in a few years. Full disclosure: Jenny’s classroom has...