Back to School in 2021

Back to School in 2021

Back to School in 2021

John starts school first, on January 4th, 2021…at our dining room table.

Virtual Classrooms at Home

In Southern California, all ICU beds are filled. His district has opted that for the foreseeable future high school teachers and students will teach and learn from home. I go back to school next week , on January 11, 2021. In our district, teachers are back at school, and students have had the option of learning from home or learning at school. Approximately half of our students enrolled in my school are physically back at school. read more

A REAL Way to do Distance Learning

A REAL Way to do Distance Learning

As we head into what will likely be the strangest school year in our lifetime, you are probably wondering , “What will school look like this year?” No one really knows. We are bombarded with so many “distance learning” options. These “options” make it sound like, “If you just used this model, your problems will be solved!”.  Some of  these “options” are simply printable resources that you still will either have to physically deliver to the student or printable resources that you will have to somehow convert to a digital platform. read more

Distance Learning- We’re here to help

Distance Learning- We’re here to help

Hi friends,

John and I both found out yesterday that each of our districts will be closing down schools effective Monday, March 16th and we will be teaching our students via Google Classroom for the next several weeks. If you got this or similar news yesterday and feel overwhelmed, do not panic. Just breathe. It will be okay. We are here to help. Take another breath, and repeat. read more

Journeys Digital Literacy Centers

Journeys Digital Literacy Centers

A new school year is here and there are not enough hours in each day to get everything done. More technology is being integrated into classrooms.  We are hearing more research about Blended learning , which mixes  technology and traditional face-to-face instruction in the classroom.  In a typical model, Blended learning combines traditional classroom learning with online learning, in which students can, in part, control the time, pace, and sometimes even place of their learning.As the new Chromebooks, laptops, iPads, and computers are being delivered , there is a great need for ideas on how to use them and integrate this new technology into our Language Arts block using our adopted curriculum. There are so many benefits of using digital resources, but two main reasons are that you don’t need to make copies and student engagement is incredibly high!  This was the inspiration for converting our Journeys story activities and resources into interactive, Google drive based activities to fill this need.When doing Literacy Centers, it makes life so much easier when you have repeatable “centers” that students learn at the beginning of the year so they know what to do each week. We have formatted our resources so students quickly learn how to use the resources and they quickly are able to work independently from the teacher. read more

Small Groups- “Word Work” (Part 3)

Congratulations! You’ve finally got your small group framework nailed down (see blog post Part 1) and now it’s time to focus on the rotation of “Word Work”. This the time when a group is working on things such as grammar, vocabulary, spelling, mechanics, or conventions while you are pulling your small group and working with them. read more