Ms. M's Tales of a Teacher: My Personal Teacher Blog

 This weekend I had the pleasure of listening to two great presenters for the Teachonomy Teacher Summit. Dr. Chris Hobbs and  Joshua Stamper both had excellent sessions that I learned a lot from. It's fairly easy for me to find professional development in other areas such as reading intervention, special education, and anything that pertains to being a classroom teacher. When it comes to leadership, it hasn't been that easy.  I'm in the unique position that I'm not studying to be an administrator or serving in a quasi-administrative role. For those that know me best, they know that leadership in education is one of my passions, and I fulfill that role through Kappa Delta Pi. Serving as Associate Counselor has been a blessing the past 7 years, and I've learned many lessons in leadership because I was given the chance to serve.  That's why I was beyond grateful for the leadership sessions Teachonomy offered during the summit. They were a perfect fit for me, yet t

 Notice something missing in the title? Although it's early in the year, I decided to change the title slightly now that we are well underway with our school year. Although the title has transformed, the purpose of my blog today hasn't! I am excited to share the next topic in my mini-series on Writing Workshop.  This month I am taking a four-part workshop through Heinemann with conferring guru Carl Anderson! Prior to the first session, I started conferring with my students on their first writing pieces. I admit that conferring makes me nervous because I don't feel confident in my abilities to confer the "correct" way. I found out through my first workshop day that I was even using a term incorrectly (hand slap to the forehead...) What I am learning through this process is exactly this... it is a process for everyone.  During conferences I've been trying to have students lead the way with their writing by asking them a few simple but important questions: How i

 As our school year progresses, I feel more in the groove with starting Writing Workshop. This is my celebration moment because even though I'm a veteran teacher, I too get nervous about starting new curriculum, programs, methods, etc. I'm finding what lessons work well, what mentor texts I want to use, and, above all, I'm connecting writing to reading.  Over the summer I listened to a Stenhouse Teacher's Corner Podcast from Season 2: Streamline Your Instruction with The Literacy Workshop.  Of course I listened to this podcast before I began Writing Workshop, but now as I work through it, it makes sense.  Like every other teacher, I only have certain allotted time to teach both reading and writing, and it's often hard to fit in all aspects of both models. The beauty so far has been in those moments when reading and writing cross over and create a true literacy workshop.  For example, I've been mindful to select books for read alouds that serve as teaching texts