Engage the Middle

Getting to Know You Activities We are now in July! It is crazy how fast summer flies by! One of the biggest parts of a new school year is taking the time to start building relationships with our students. We also want our students to be excited about coming back to school and our classrooms. It is harder than ever to win over students engagement, and we want to start right off the bat building an engaging environment. Here are a few activities to help you get to know your students and build engagement right off the bat! Paper Airplane Questionnaire    Google Presentation Activity Directions This activity is a fun way to learn a bit more about students outside of the ordinary questions. You can complete this activity in the classroom, the hallway, or outside. Students will write a question on the piece of paper. I try to get my students to think outside the box when creating questions and provide students with a few different examples. Once students have

Assess Writing With Your Students! Five years ago, I accepted my first teaching job. I was filled with excitement, bouncing up and down, and couldn’t wait for the year to begin. However, it didn't take long for me to realize the impact of grading on my life outside of the classroom. I was constantly assessing writing at home and writing feedback. I started to resent teaching even though I loved the job. I started reflecting and realized I was putting in all of this time and effort, but students’ writing was not changing for the better. How could I put all of these comments and students didn’t take them to heart? I finally asked my students, how many of you honestly read the comments I put on your rough draft? My heart sank when only two hands went into the air. How do I help my students become better writers, and how do I make time for myself so I don’t burn out? After quite a bit of trial and error, I finally figured it out. I started assessing their writing with them duri