A typical independent reading task in my classroom consists of reading and a response to reading. A response to reading usually is done in the reading journal. It helps students to confidently and independently respond to texts if, over the year, you help them build up a bank of reading journal entry types that they … Continue reading 9 Types of Reading Journal Entries
Author: emily.fintelman
Mrs Fintelman’s End of Year Report
You know that time towards the end of the school year, where you start dreaming about your next class and all the things you will do better next year? The more I teach, the more I am concentrating not so much on what I do, but on the impact of my actions on students' learning and … Continue reading Mrs Fintelman’s End of Year Report
Effort and Achievement Charts
Carol Dweck's work around growth and fixed mindsets has been groundbreaking for education. It has reinforced for educators that is it essential to praise effort, not intelligence. This has led to change in the way educators speak and lots of us are doing great work in the way we provide feedback to students based on … Continue reading Effort and Achievement Charts
Mulling Time
The topic of what good professional learning looks like is always contentious. Some of us love to sit and listen and soak up some new knowledge from a great speaker. Others argue that the best professional learning happens in schools with colleagues through inquiry, observation and dialogue. I think that there is a place for … Continue reading Mulling Time
Show a Pro
Do you get annoyed when your students come to you for every little thing? Or conversely, maybe you sometimes feel yourself getting frustrated when one of your students speaks up about something they know lots about, rudely interrupting you when you are trying to teach that very same thing to the class. Schools and teachers … Continue reading Show a Pro
The One Best Pedagogy
Teaching is like walking through a maze... you are often sure that the turn you took was the right decision, but you'll never be able to be absolutely sure that the turn you ignored wouldn't also have been a good one. A thought that has been weighing on my brain is something I heard Mike Mattos say at a PD … Continue reading The One Best Pedagogy
How to Let Your Students Set Up Their Own Classroom
You know that feeling you get? That one where you finally have had enough of your summer break, take yourself into school, and look at the blank walls of your new year's classroom, just itching to fill it with colour and decorations and a reading corner and intriguing objects and all sorts of learning? Isn't there … Continue reading How to Let Your Students Set Up Their Own Classroom
The Things that Counted: Reflecting on 2016
When I moved up to grade 4/5 last year after teaching only the early years in my career so far, one of the things I both looked forward to and most feared was how to engage students in their learning by making it real. At the end of that year, I chatted with my kids about what … Continue reading The Things that Counted: Reflecting on 2016
Why I Hate Classroom Themes
At the beginning of each school year, my Pinterest feed fills up with tons of pictures that fall under the heading of "Classroom Inspiration". Teacher friends will send pictures of their freshly decorated rooms to each other with questions about where to put the book corner. Ikea experiences a massive spike in sales of those giant canopy leaves … Continue reading Why I Hate Classroom Themes
Hexagonal Thinking
Hexagonal Thinking is a visual tool to help people make connections and organise ideas on a topic. I first learned about hexagonal thinking through the No Tosh Lab who encourage the use of it for going from the messy idea stage of the designing thinking process to the stage where ideas are organised and ordered to work … Continue reading Hexagonal Thinking
