My #library #bookhaul Loved reading these titles over the past days. From these, I’ve requested more titles by these authors & illustrators. Anthologies are great resources to learn about creators! #buildyourstack #kidlit #picturebooksofinstagram #bookstagram #teachergram #titletalk #shelfietalk

#OnLeadership: Promises and Pitfalls of Text Selection Tune into our panel discussion around @ncte.org's report on secondary text selection, where we will focus on how leaders facilitate text selection processes. Then, stay to join a breakout room to troubleshoot and brainstorm. bit.ly/CELVirtual

@joellenmccarthy.bsky.social My #LibraryHaul after attending @theedcollab.bsky.social Fall Gathering yesterday! 💜 #BuildYourStack #BookLove #KidLit

“A writing voice is crafted by where you live your reading life.” Katie Wood Ray ♥️♥️♥️ @theedcollab.bsky.social #thedcollabgathering.

It was 1996 and I was told not to smile before Christmas. But can ya still kinda see me smiling? 😆

It's Week 4 of #ThesisoftheWeek and the poem for thesis practice this week is "Basilico" by Sue Ann Gleason: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Always a favorite activity. The title seems simple…until we start mapping the connotations of each word, unlocking meaning and anticipation. #TheOldManabdndtheSea #APLit

A 9/11 artifact. The window of the front office with messages for NJ teens from their parents who worked in NYC.

Monday 9/15 begins Week Three of #ThesisoftheWeek which is always linked on my Poetry as Practice Blog. The stimulus text this week is "Balance" by Dorianne Laux. Here's the doc: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

I was today years old when I learned from a school library media specialist that there’s such a thing as Vox Books! So cool! #kidlit #booklove #audiobooks #librariesrock

This weekend’s #picturebook #libraryhaul #teachergram #elementaryeducation #pb10for10 #bookstagram #booklove #kidlit #titletalk #shelfietalk

Different settings = different reading platforms! Before sunrise on weekends, we like to sit outside by the fire to start our day. Can’t read a paper book outside before sunrise (well, not without a flashlight!) So this #ebook suits. Also: I can sip tea and turn pages simultaneously! ☕️ 📖

To end the week, we had conversation an about what “analysis” means, understanding the pieces and the whole. We studied a partner’s Lego build closely, broke it down, put it together again piece by piece. “We’re going to do this with texts all semester…this is our metaphor!” Poem of the Day:

Great info on the importance of teaching copyright clarity: aischoollibrarian.substack.com/p/pirated-bo...

Week two of #ThesisoftheWeek and the stimulus text is "Mending" by David Axelrod. Use it if you'd like, and share it if you'd like! poetryaspractice.blogspot.com/2025/09/intr...

More than halfway through this #graphicmemoir about #ALS and 💔

Need some engaging writing prompts to get your students scribbling furiously? ✍️ Look no further! #EduSky

@thereadingzone.bsky.social @thevogelman.bsky.social @rebekahodell1.bsky.social @marcusluther.bsky.social @historycomics.bsky.social @katebaker.bsky.social @mraleosays.bsky.social @biblioracle.bsky.social @lyricalswordz.bsky.social @joelrgarza.bsky.social @pennykittle.bsky.social

Launching a resource that I hope helps ELA teachers! Thesis of the Week = low-risk formative literary analysis practice. Weekly poems & practice w/ thesis statements are NOT for a formal grade, but intended to grow students' writing efficacy. poetryaspractice.blogspot.com/2025/09/intr...

My #libraryhaul today. Bound and determined to get as many titles in as possible before the end of the month 💜

It started when I read a poem written by #RobertPinsky in @theatlantic and then went in search of a collection of his poems in the @bcclslibraries app, and then found this #memoir too and so here we are #FeetUpFriday #nonfiction #newjersey #lovewhereyoulive

@penguinschoollib.bsky.social Thanks for this beautiful #ARC 💗 #booklove #mglit #teachergram #bookstagram

Again, the blue book method of examination has its place, as does oral presentations or individual tutorials, or whatever other modality that we think is resistant to outsourcing to generative AI, but those things are not the same thing as the extended experience of a challenging piece of writing.

One of the things I had to learn over time, and that truly didn't take root until graduate school was how to engage my curiosity and dig in on subjects that weren't immediately fascinating. It's a cliche, but I had to learn how to learn. Letting me skate on those blue books delayed this experience.

I’m fine with folks turning to blue books, but when the choice is made, I do want to know how much of it is a desire to preserve “school,” and how much is a desire to spur student learning?

In which she wrote a handwritten note to all the teachers who worked on curriculum over the summer to express her gratitude. And had an aching hand but a grateful heart. ✍️ 🗒️

Love these One Word takeaways from our New Staff Orientation!

😂

Yup. Did most of these 🤦‍♀️ More importantly, I stopped doing them because I had great leaders who helped me reflect on how ineffective and damaging they were. Then, when they started to happen to my own kids, I fought for change. “Change is participatory” (Minor). www.edutopia.org/article/7-cl...

Up the Kingdom! ☘️ www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic...

Reminder about audiobooks:

We have to stop literacy shaming kids! Folks might think they're helping, but it's just making kids feel bad about what they want to read. Guess what? That makes them not want to read. #EndLiteracyShaming bit.ly/endlitshaming

And now… an even more amazing package!!! The dragon bookmark is next level! Thanks again @penguinschoollib.bsky.social ♥️ 🐉

This is why sociocultural theories of literacy are vital. There's a tacit assumption that reading/writing/inquiring/arguing are "skills" that can be seamlessly transferred across contexts and that they basically mean the same thing everywhere. The reality is a lot more complicated.

ADDRESS ANXIETY TO BOOST LEARNING By focusing on student anxiety and the need to feel safe, teachers can help kids experience the self-regulation they need for learning, says Gravity Goldberg. #edusky @drgravityg.bsky.social #educoach @larryferlazzo.bsky.social www.middleweb.com/52328/addres...

Today every Glenwood fourth grader entered a magical forest of their own making. Embracing spontaneity & creative risks, they staged A Midsummer Night's Dream w/ guidance from Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. Bravo to the cast & everyone who supported them from rehearsals to the final show! 🎭 🧚 🫏

When you reach out to an author and say, "Would you consider sending us a brief video recording and some words of encouragement?" And the author says, "I'd love to join you in real time!" Big thanks to Myron Dueck who joined the Pre Tenure Academy teachers for Q&A on his book Giving Students a Say.

Here's a #PairedText on a beautiful Sunday! See links to each text below. "Ribollita" by Donna Hilbert and "Perfect Ribollita Soup Recipe" by Gino D'Acampo @katebaker.bsky.social @mraleosays.bsky.social 1/3

I think we do have a strong sense of what to do about “ChatGPT in schools” and it’s the same thing we should’ve been doing before ChatGPT. open.substack.com/pub/bibliora...

If we create the conditions for student writers to thrive, discover their capacity, and explore multiple writing ecologies, they will feel this way about using AI to “write” (generate strings of syntax that appear like thinking and writing but are not): thebrokencopier.substack.com/p/what-my-st...

Love being on this team! Our roundtable sesh at NJASA was well received! #edusky #njasa #njed

“How did Wendy make it to college internalizing that her ideas do not matter?” This. If students don’t believe that their own writing voices have value, they’ll never aspire to be writers. And… duh. Surveilling and policing students is not teaching writing.

Happy Mother’s Day! www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/pe0...

@penguinschoollib.bsky.social Thanks for the #BookMail 💕

Here's a small set of mentor sentences from a recent article I read. Writing beside well crafted sentences strengthens my practice and gives me ideas for what to write about in the future. #MentorTexts #EduSky #CraftMoves #WritingCraft #WriteBesideThem docs.google.com/document/d/1...

I am hiring two ELA middle school teachers! Deadline is 5/18 to apply: www.applitrack.com/millburnnj/o...

Love Marie Howe’s poetry and this is so well deserved! www.pulitzer.org/node/marie-h...

Grades do not adequately communicate learning. If we are to support student learning and curiosity we may stop labeling learning and give better feedback so students can advocate for their needs effectively #ungrading #edusky

@mraleosays.bsky.social @katebaker.bsky.social #pairedtext #textset that might accompany a unit with core texts like Hamlet, or The Things They Carried, or All Quiet on the Western Front, etc. 1/3

Finally got around to "When I'm 84: The World Still Needs Ringo Starr" by Mark Leibovich. Collected mentor excerpts to write beside. Great #MentorText for biography writing and for music lovers! #MentorTexts #WriteBesideThem #WriteforYourLife #MovingWriters docs.google.com/document/d/1...