I told myself a couple weeks ago that I would spend a couple hours a week adding to this blog by writing about teaching ideas that are important to me. One of the reasons I decided to do this was because I am tired of focusing on how busy I am. Yes I teach seven and a half classes for three different colleges and universities between four different departments. Yes I also work as a writing tutor/mentor with student-athletes at one of those schools. Yes I have a hard time saying NO to people, so I always make my self available to read or provide feedback on a draft of a chapter or manuscript or syllabus that a friend or colleague is working on. But I am not so busy that I cannot spend ti

I've been home for almost a week from the National Council of Teachers of English Assembly for Research winter conference, which was held at Towson University outside of Baltimore, Maryland. It's been almost a week and I have finally found time to go through my notes. (That should show you how crazy my schedule is!) The Assembly for Research is such a great (small) conference where just as much is gained from the conversations at lunch as from the sessions. NCTEAR17 was my first, and I was hooked! It is also a safe space for talking about topics than academics are often not excited about discussing. My notes are not organized in any way and they're not written/composed in a linear fashi

I asked my pre-service teachers, as part of their weekly reading reflection, to create a multimodal response to "The M Word: Dare We Use It?" by Harrison & Alvermann (2017). I always tell my pre-service teachers that when they ask their students to do something, they should do it too. With that in mind, I created my own example for them: I also tell my pre-service teachers that they shouldn't feel they need to be artists--I'm definitely not! Note: Storyboard That provides free accounts as well as paid accounts (for personal use and at educational pricing).

I have so many thoughts and ideas about where my current project has come from, where it has been, and the direction it is going, and I just know I'm going to come across as a disorganized, absent-minded fool. But trust me when I say this is a topic I am passionate about. The current study came about after analyzing the data from the pilot study I did as part of my PhD studies. My purpose statement from that research study: The purpose of this case study was to discover how, if at all, pre-service teachers are preparing to use literature to address students from diverse backgrounds in their future classrooms. In this study, pre-service teachers (PSTs) are defined as masters-level students

I have been letting the words of David Kirkland marinate in my mind and my soul as I try to figure out a way to engage with these ideas with my in-service and pre-service teachers... hats are just one small part of our students’ identities and discourses with their world.