The Blog
50+ Summer Reading Recommendations
Have you seen the #KidsNeedBooks movement? It was a small gesture that turned into a Twitter hashtag movement by author Ann Braden. A number of authors have jumped on board giving away free stacks of their books to teachers so that they can, in turn, give them to...
BreakoutEDU in the Classroom
When it's test-taking season and the kids have worked so hard, they need a day to use that knowledge for fun! Rather than more practice with multiple choice questions, try a BreakoutEDU session. What is a BreakoutEDU? The best way to describe it is to compare it...
Shake Up Learning book review
Starting this blog has been the best professional development in my 15 years of teaching. Learning about the teacher community of social media that supports and encourages one another has been an incredible inspiration alone. I've also discovered other blogging...
Overcome Teacher Mom Guilt
Hidden in the bathroom, you try to steal five minutes to take a moment to breathe and scroll through mindless social media when that teacher tired meme pops up mocking you. Teacher tired? Sure, but teacher-mom tired is more like it. The loss of two hours sleep from...
Classroom Library Solutions
An eighth-grade teacher’s classroom library is where I found my favorite book, Goodbye Paperdoll. She had a closet-sized classroom, but still felt it was important enough to sacrifice the space for bookshelves that lined the back wall. If you, too, are a...
Resolutions: A Teacher’s Mid-term
How many of you had a new planner or personal calendar on your Christmas list? None. Me either, because for teachers the year began in August, and will end in June. Our resolutions and goals, those were set back in the fall when school was just about to start. For...
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.