sustainteaching.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

If your assessment is not valid and reliable, then it's not an assessment; it's just an activity.

submitted 19 hours ago • 0 comments

You can let students use inventive spelling, but make sure you are providing corrective feedback along the way. #MyKidsCantWrite

submitted 19 hours ago • 0 comments

Learning environments that embrace cognitive writing are inherently empowering for learners, as they are encouraged to connect to their background knowledge and make informed decisions, using the tools at their disposal to access content and share their thinking.

submitted 19 hours ago • 0 comments

Kids shouldn't be blindly memorizing their math facts. Instead, they should be engaged in repeated and efficient calculation so that it eventually becomes automatic in their memories. There's a BIG difference between these two.

submitted 23 hours ago • 0 comments

Kids like when things feel easy. Correct writing is efficient writing, which feel easier with time! #MyKidsCantWrite

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Giving kids their own space in the classroom will help them feel safe and grounded. I get the rationale behind collaborative tables, but when the tables are a mess and kids don't have a space for their things, it disrupts learning.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Voice and choice isn't about letting kids do whatever they want; it's about making their voices heard. There's quite a difference.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

When other students in the classroom are constantly disruptive, we have to ask ourselves... how are our most vulnerable students being affected? Especially the ones who need all the instructional minutes they can get?

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

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.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

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.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

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

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

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

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

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.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

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.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

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

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

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

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

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.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

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.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

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

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

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/...

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

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

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

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

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

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.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

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.

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

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.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

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

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

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.

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

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.

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

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.

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

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

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

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.

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

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.

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

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

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

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

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

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

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments