English classroom

There are three kinds of teacher-decorators: those who were born for Pinterest, those who can’t, and all the ones in between (such as the broke, the tired, and the I-have-no-time-to-decorate). However, making a classroom appeal to middle and high school students doesn’t HAVE to involve serious crafting or expensive, time-intensive projects. Check out these tips from me and Bonnie from Presto Plans as you prepare your classroom for the fall (or at any time of year that you want to give it a…

By Presto Plans I first realized the power of bell ringers years ago, thanks to a particularly unruly class that would bounce off my walls after lunch. After consistently wasting the first ten minutes of class getting students seated, settled, and ready to learn, I decided to give bell-ringers a try. They were immediately a classroom game-changer. Bell-ringers—sometimes referred to as “warm ups” or “do nows”— are questions, tasks, or other warm up activities that students complete at the…

When back to school season rolls around, I always have my guard up when it comes to shopping. There is always SO MUCH that I WANT, and so little that I actually NEED. What I’ve done for the past few years is this: I set a budget and I set a limit on my projects. The point of su

There are so many positive classroom ideas for high school that high school teachers should steal from the elementary world...

Filler Activities for ELA (blog post) What can you do with five extra minutes in secondary ELA? Here are a few ideas to engage students until the bell.

As we are heading back to school an abundance of creative classrooms are filling my Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter feeds. I love seeing how other teachers

Looking for Wordle classroom ideas? Incorporate Wordle into your classroom with this activities, ideas, and templates.

An overview of 9 simple but effective classroom management tips secondary teachers can use to feel confident in their classroom and increase student learning.

Are you looking for books to use in your high school classroom that will actually engage your students? High school novels aren’t always the easiest to choose, especially when you have a group of students who are reluctant readers. Try a few of these suggestions for novels to teach in high school English that will keep your students excited about reading.

You want your classroom to be a colorful, cozy, and inviting learning space. You’d love to have a cohesive theme or at least a color scheme, so everything looks put together. But are themes childish? Aren’t middle schoolers too old for classroom decor?