The Blog
Hold a Speech Contest with Scrooge
A Christmas Carol is arguably the most widely known Dickens story of all time. Made into movie after made-for-TV movie, this story has been told over and over again. Each year the 7th-grade language arts teachers dust off our textbooks and read this play with...
Professional Development Anytime, Anywhere
My first years as a teacher I loved going to professional development meetings. I have always loved to learn new things. Probably why I became a teacher. In that first year, I discovered a workshop called What's New in Young Adult Literature? and it changed...
How to Build Your Professional Learning Network
When I started blogging there was a whole new world of teachers sharing their knowledge and helping each other learn on social media. Jump over to my post about why teachers need to embrace social media if you don't know what I'm talking about. I was amazed...
3 Ways to Help Your Child Be a Better Reader
Parents ask me all the time, "How can I help my child be a better reader?" "What can I do at home to help my child be a better reader?" The simplest answer to this question is READ. Read with them. Read to them. Read a page then have them read a page. READ. READ....
DIY Current Read Classroom Poster with Canva
At the start of the school year, I was seeing lots of posts where teachers created a classroom poster to show kids the books they were currently reading. My husband had actually done this in his classroom last year and I ran out of time then forgot to make one for...
How to create classroom community
One the greatest aspects to establish in the classroom, right from the start, is a sense of community. Classroom community is important for students to feel they are in a safe place to share ideas and take some risks. When they feel the environment around them will...
About the author
Carly has been teaching middle school ELA since 2001. She fell in love with finding ways to integrate technology into lesson plans and continues to look for the best ways to do this. Starting blogs with her students has become her favorite way to give students a louder voice and keep parents informed.
In 2014, Carly married her teacher husband. They now have two children; one boy and one girl…for now. Learning how to balance life as a wife and mother is the journey that inspired this blog and its resources.