January 26th, 2012
Writing a good story that is educationally sound, fun, accessible, lively, and interesting enough to keep the students attention from beginning to end is a serious challenge. There are lots of options and lots of choices. Genre, settings, topics, characters, tone, narrative, vocabulary, grammatical progression etc… I decided that a mystery will keep the students
January 18th, 2012
For quite a few years, the books I’ve written on history for middle school kids have been published by two different publishers – Wayside Publishing (Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Middle Ages, and West Meets East) and Pemblewick Press (the Renaissance, two books on Native Americans, two books on China, and Islam). But now they all
January 18th, 2012
“My dog ate my homework,” “I am too stressed out for this,” “I’ve never been a good test-taker,” are all excuses most teachers have heard frequently. In fact, teachers have heard them all. Although excuses may seem real to students using them, the fact is that they have not faced their situation and taken responsibility
November 10th, 2011
After seeing the reaction to my first blog, all I can think is: “So—blogging ain’t my thing”. After all, two comments in two months is not a celebratory endorsement. So let’s see if an activity for teaching vocabulary doesn’t excite even a little more excitement. I will even settle for feigned interest. First, and foremost,
September 10th, 2011
Aren’t words wonderful! Take the word ‘blog’. I can define it; I can use it as a noun; and I can use it as a verb; but really I don’t know how to blog at all. You see this is my first blog attempt. Wow! An adjective too!! Guess I will blog on. One of
