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sustainteaching.bsky.social
I help schools #MakeTeachingSustainable. 🏳️‍🌈 #NBCT | Adj. Prof. & Consultant | Keynote Speaker | Author @CorwinPress @ASCD | #personalizedlearning #SXSWEDU
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We have to consider... it's definitely an equity concern to remove students from the classroom for misbehaving. It's ALSO an equity concern when disruptive students are allowed to stay in the classroom when they prevent others from learning.

If kids are disrupting the classroom day in and day out, they should be removed from the classroom. We are too permissive, and we let too many behaviors slide. And this makes teaching unsustainable. Part of being in a group means respecting the norms of the group.

Kids can write metacognitively in the primary grades, too. We just have to scaffold it properly. #MyKidsCantWrite

It's like how makers take things apart to learn how to put them back together. Reading and writing are the same. #MyKidsCantWrite

Be honest about how you feel. Be direct with what you think. If you aren't saying what's on your mind, you might be sweeping problems under the rug. And in schools, that affects our kids.

Teachers are too worried to upset each other in schools that we are tiptoeing around each other, not giving our colleagues the necessary feedback they need to improve. Kids' futures are on the line, and we need to be adult enough to be direct with one another so that kids can learn.

Research on generative learning lies at the foundation of this approach to cognitive writing. Head to the link below or the link in my bio to learn more and grab your copy of "My Kids Can't Write." buff.ly/40BU7xn

Don't wait for the curriculum to tell you to get kids writing. It probably won't. Find ways to plan it into your instruction. #MyKidsCantWrite

Instructional resources adopted by a district can definitely support teachers in teaching better -- but only if districts support teachers in ADAPTING them to meet their students' needs.

You know you are giving kids too much choice and too much agency if your classroom is chaotic and your assessments show your students are not learning.

On-demand writing prepares students for the real world. @sustainteaching.bsky.social shares 4 recommendations to build student writing skills across the curriculum.

If you haven't yet been able to check out this month's issue of EL Magazine, please do! We need some positive vibes right now. We need to keep talking about what IS working. Find my article, "Integrating Writing In Every Classroom" here: www.ascd.org/el/articles/...

My training as an Elementary and Special Education teacher has been central and invaluable to my work as a high school English teacher.

The more you do anything, the better you get at it. So get kids writing! #MyKidsCantWrite

Restorative justice is hard work. It's about having hard conversations, acknowledging when you're wrong, and ensuring that the person you've hurt can feel safe with you again.

I am often asked if I have experience working with high school teachers since my experience is primarily in elementary. Notice how often, though, high school teachers are NOT asked this when they work with elementary schools.

It's not restorative justice if all parties don't feel safe and healed. Restorative justice only happens when amends are made. Restorative justice is not going to the principal's office and returning with a piece of candy.

It's not that you can't ever have kids take notes, but how will you know if they've actually processed the information? Invite them to "stop and jot" to consolidate learning. #MyKidsCantWrite

Curriculum creators do not know your students. YOU know your students. So make sure you take that curriculum and adapt it to meet your kids' needs--otherwise they won't learn a damn thing.

If your students are disengaged or not learning, then you NEED to modify the curriculum--even if your school district is telling you teach it exactly as-is.

Correctness is not a means for serving tests or other compliance metrics; it provides a pathway to making writing easier, more enjoyable, and accessible to everyone.

If you can't name and clearly articulate your approach to teaching phonics AND morphology, you have some homework to do. #MyKidsCantWrite

Every time you speak, every time you write, and every time you move your body, your students are watching and emulating what you are doing. This is a tall order for teachers -- and we need to make sure we are modeling what we want our students to do.

If you can't handle criticism, you should not become a teacher. Being a teacher requires receiving feedback so that you can be the best teacher possible. Our kids deserve teachers who constantly strive to be better.

If learners have not demonstrated proficiency in the structure of our writing system, then how can we expect them to write fluently?

If your students aren't writing about their reading, you're doing it wrong.

Niceness isn't working. We have to start being direct and assertive when we see bad practice in schools--or when we see folks promoting bad education policy. There's too much on the line--and we can't afford to be nice anymore. #MakeTeachingSustainable

I've worked in a lot of schools. And let me say this... when you adopt a curriculum and then require teachers to teach it exactly as-is, IT LITERALLY NEVER WORKS. Give it a try if you really want to, but be warned, you will piss teachers off--and your students will not grow.

We can provide teachers resources without mandating sameness and requiring them to all use them in the same manner. One approach is mindful and humanizing; the other approach is mindless and harmful.

Exposing kids to grade level content is essentially useless if they don't have the pre-requisite skills to actually make meaning of it. We need to meet our kids where they are.

No cap.

For whatever reason, we've come to see individualized learning as the gold standard. But if we have strong whole-group instruction, universally designed with varied access points for learners, it's not only great for kids--it's SUSTAINABLE. #MakeTeachingSustainable

When we give kids scaffolds that enable them, they aren't actually learning.

Grading is a compliance task. Assessing is a way of being in the classroom. Don't grade... assess.