Teaching Unscripted

After 29 years teaching, Kim Culbertson recounts the top 10 things she will miss about teaching high school upon retirement in June 2026. Congratulations, and thank you, Kim!

Over the summer, many students can lose reading and writing progress they worked so hard to build. To combat this, set your students up with books they'll actually want to read and simple writing ideas that feel more like a personal choice than a school assignment.

Examine how decodable texts can support comprehension by reducing cognitive load and making meaning accessible to early readers.

In many schools, teachers are under immense pressure to keep up with pacing guides that come with their curriculum, leaving seemingly no room for reading whole books. Marilyn Pryle dissects the necessities of choice and ownership in getting kids to read for pleasure.

Heinemann today announced that Math Expressions K-5 has been fully approved by the Utah State Board of Education (USBE), and Do The Math® and Saxon Reading Foundations have been recommended-limited as supplemental resources for students in grades K-8 and K-2, respectively.

A Teacher's Guide to Using AI is for teachers who wanna use AI thoughtfully without losing their voice, their values, or their students. Watch Meenoo Rami talk about what you'll find in the book.

When reading workshop is intentionally paired with core ELA instruction, it amplifies what is already working.

For too many, math triggers distress, which causes the brain to opt out rather than to engage in mathematical sense-making. Unpack math anxiety, bias, stereotypes, and stereotype threat.

Teachers are routinely exposed to others’ traumas, putting them at risk for secondary traumatic stress or compassion fatigue. Learn how to

Kylene Beers offers 5 ways teachers can help students improve fluency.

Outlining some of the symptoms of math anxiety, looking at likely causes, and discussing specific strategies for helping reduce, if not entirely eliminate, these anxieties in students.

There's a difference between assigning writing and teaching it. When we assign writing, we give students a task and hope they write something of merit. When we teach writing, we give them the knowledge, the strategies, and the supported practice they need to grow as writers over time.

As the school year winds down and maybe exhaustion sets in, how can we manage the workload effectively?

K-8 teachers, literacy coaches, administrators, and curriculum specialists who want to strengthen their writing curriculums. This institute is designed to support you in enhancing and revising your instructional approach to teaching writing to maximize the conditions for student engagement and increase achievement.

Use code THANKYOU26 for 30% off + free shipping on all professional books for Teacher Appreciation Week. Valid May 4-29. Check post for details and book lists.

No one becomes an avid reader on a diet of text tidbits. Practicing reading skills on paragraph-long excerpts lacks authenticity; it is absent of purpose apart from “doing school.” Books are more than tools for teaching children how to read. They are the reason to read.

Many young people encounter AI as a means of finishing their work or finding answers, but that kind of surface-level use limits both curiosity and growth. Model ways they can use AI as something they can shape, challenge, and learn from to challenge this idea.

The literacy crisis is more than "kids aren't reading!" Let's explore why and how we can get them back to whole books. Featuring new posts from Carol Jago, Penny Kittle, Marilyn Pryle, and more. Excerpts from previous titles by Kelly Gallagher, Tom Newkirk, Stephanie Affinito, and more.