Teaching Middle School ELA

I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text!Teachers consistently reach out to us asking how to make their classrooms run more smoothly because they are struggling to accomplish everything that needs to get done in a single period.  Think about it. Teachers are expected to manage taking attendance, checking homework, chatting with students about missing work or grades, passing out all the things, and collecting others--all while keeping twenty to thirty kids learning. In a 45 minute period, we are expected to do it all!  Luckily, this problem of classroom chaos is probably one of the few things in teaching that has a shockingly simple solution. And I mean SO simple. I promise you, if you give my suggestions today a try, you will see massive improvements in not only your students’ focus and productivity, but also in your ability to be calm and accomplish all the logistical and organizational pieces that make a great classroom. Links mentioned in this episode: ebacademics.com/freebellringers ebacademics.com/engaging Are you enjoying the podcast? Tag us @ebacademics and let us know which episode you're listening to! Make sure to Subscribe and leave us a Review! Your review helps us reach even more middle school ELA teachers just like you! It would mean so much to us. To leave a review in iTunes, click HERE and scroll down to Rating and Reviews. Click on "Write a Review" and let us know how this podcast is helping you in your ELA classroom! Other episodes you might enjoy: Constructive Criticism: How to Change Your Mindset and Be Open to Feedback Mini Literary Analysis Writing PD: Hooking Your Students

I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text!I’m sure you can all relate to a feeling that Alexa so openly shared with me today. Sometimes, as teachers, we find ourselves in a rut--lacking inspiration, energy, or confidence in the classroom. It could be due to a particular unit that isn’t clicking, some classroom personalities that aren’t quite jiving, or simply a time when life outside of school is so hectic, draining, or challenging that our happiness and success at work are affected.  While these feelings and seasons in teaching are totally normal, they still completely suck. There is no doubt about it. Fortunately, Alexa stumbled upon our podcast during one of these very seasons, and in her words, the rest is history! Links mentioned in this episode: ebacademics.com/detective Are you enjoying the podcast? Tag us @ebacademics and let us know which episode you're listening to! Make sure to Subscribe and leave us a Review! Your review helps us reach even more middle school ELA teachers just like you! It would mean so much to us. To leave a review in iTunes, click HERE and scroll down to Rating and Reviews. Click on "Write a Review" and let us know how this podcast is helping you in your ELA classroom! Other episodes you might enjoy: Constructive Criticism: How to Change Your Mindset and Be Open to Feedback Mini Literary Analysis Writing PD: Hooking Your Students

I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text!There is no doubt about it--Valentine’s Day is one of the craziest days of the school year in a middle school classroom. Hormones and red carnations fly, and I will tell you from my own experience that the day can either be incredible or a complete nightmare.  Today, I will share my tips and tricks for creating a lesson on Valentine’s Day that will engage your students, feed on their energy and enthusiasm, and still teach rigorous content.  Links mentioned in this episode: ebacademics.com/engaging Are you enjoying the podcast? Tag us @ebacademics and let us know which episode you're listening to! Make sure to Subscribe and leave us a Review! Your review helps us reach even more middle school ELA teachers just like you! It would mean so much to us. To leave a review in iTunes, click HERE and scroll down to Rating and Reviews. Click on "Write a Review" and let us know how this podcast is helping you in your ELA classroom! Other episodes you might enjoy: Constructive Criticism: How to Change Your Mindset and Be Open to Feedback Mini Literary Analysis Writing PD: Hooking Your Students

I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text!In today's episode, I'm interviewing one of our EB Teachers' Club members, Monica Jayasinghe. Monica is a 6th grade ELA and Social Studies teacher in Watts, California, which is located in Los Angeles.  Hear what Monica has to say about her experience as an EB Teacher:  "When I come home, I don’t have to stress about what I’m going to do tomorrow and are they [my students] going to like it, and am I going to hit all my standards, because I KNOW these units are going to work! The first bundle that I opened ... Oh my gosh! It was everything I could have asked for, and right away, I felt really good about my decision. Engagement and rigor could be the tag lines for the club ... My principal walks in, and I just look like I’m a genius! These are topics [my students] are interested in, and I’m interested in. It’s fun for me to see each month ... Ooh, what’s the next bundle? I feel like I’m opening a gift!" If you're ready to learn more about the EB Teachers' Club, add your name to our waitlist and grab a free murder mystery, whodunnit activity to use right away with your students! ebacademics.com/detective Other episodes you might enjoy: Constructive Criticism: How to Change Your Mindset and Be Open to Feedback Mini Literary Analysis Writing PD: Hooking Your Students

I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text!Can you name a single teacher who doesn’t wish they could spend less time planning? Yeah… I didn’t think so. Honestly, who wants to be spending their free time working when they could be enjoying their hobbies, family, or friends? No one!  I get it, and I am all about working smarter, not harder. So today, I want to share a strategy with you that TOTALLY shifted the way I think about managing my time. Truly, it has been a game-changer for me, and I know it will help you, too.  Links mentioned in this episode: ebacademics.com/membership Are you enjoying the podcast? Tag us @ebacademics and let us know which episode you're listening to! Make sure to Subscribe and leave us a Review! Your review helps us reach even more middle school ELA teachers just like you! It would mean so much to us. To leave a review in iTunes, click HERE and scroll down to Rating and Reviews. Click on "Write a Review" and let us know how this podcast is helping you in your ELA classroom! Other episodes you might enjoy: Constructive Criticism: How to Change Your Mindset and Be Open to Feedback Mini Literary Analysis Writing PD: Hooking Your Students

I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text!Today I want to talk a little about my story and why engaging lessons are at the forefront of everything I do in EB Academics. Along with one of our team members, Kara, I create a lot of the content, or monthly lesson plans for our teachers in the EB Teachers’ Club. It’s super important to me that the lessons are rigorous and standards-aligned and yet are so much fun for the students that they are practically jumping out of their seats to see what they’ll be learning next.   All of which brings me to my story that I want to share with you today and where this passion for creating engaging lessons came from. So let’s go all the way back to my time as a student ... Links mentioned in this episode: ebacademics.com/detective Are you enjoying the podcast? Tag us @ebacademics and let us know which episode you're listening to! Make sure to Subscribe and leave us a Review! Your review helps us reach even more middle school ELA teachers just like you! It would mean so much to us. To leave a review in iTunes, click HERE and scroll down to Rating and Reviews. Click on "Write a Review" and let us know how this podcast is helping you in your ELA classroom! Other episodes you might enjoy: Constructive Criticism: How to Change Your Mindset and Be Open to Feedback Mini Literary Analysis Writing PD: Hooking Your Students

I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text!If our students are not engaged in their learning, then we’ve lost them already. They’ve tuned out and they’re thinking about all the other pressing concerns preteens and teenagers face. So all of your incredible academic goals for them are going to be really hard to accomplish. I know that’s not how any of us imagined our classroom when we decided to become teachers.  We became teachers to be creative, have fun with kids, and change lives. But too many teachers are drowning - we hear it all the time, and we totally get it.  So, what can you do about it? Well, we have to start creating not just rigorous lessons, but engaging lessons. This episode makes the case for just that. Links mentioned in this episode: ebacademics.com/waitlist Are you enjoying the podcast? Tag us @ebacademics and let us know which episode you're listening to! Make sure to Subscribe and leave us a Review! Your review helps us reach even more middle school ELA teachers just like you! It would mean so much to us. To leave a review in iTunes, click HERE and scroll down to Rating and Reviews. Click on "Write a Review" and let us know how this podcast is helping you in your ELA classroom! Other episodes you might enjoy: Constructive Criticism: How to Change Your Mindset and Be Open to Feedback Mini Literary Analysis Writing PD: Hooking Your Students

I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text!Okay, let me ask you, have you ever wanted to have just more fun in your ELA classroom, but thought to yourself, “Well, I’m not creative enough to come up with a fun lesson. Or, "I don’t have the time for creating all the materials for an engaging lesson.” You know, those thoughts that hold us back? But still, deep down you know you want to have more fun in your classroom with your students and with your lessons.  Well, one of the biggest objections we see many middle school ELA teachers making is thinking it’s too much work to make their lessons fun and make sure students are learning. In today's episode, we discuss this limiting belief and what we can do about it. Links mentioned in this episode: ebacademics.com/detective Are you enjoying the podcast? Tag us @ebacademics and let us know which episode you're listening to! Make sure to Subscribe and leave us a Review! Your review helps us reach even more middle school ELA teachers just like you! It would mean so much to us. To leave a review in iTunes, click HERE and scroll down to Rating and Reviews. Click on "Write a Review" and let us know how this podcast is helping you in your ELA classroom! Other episodes you might enjoy: Constructive Criticism: How to Change Your Mindset and Be Open to Feedback Mini Literary Analysis Writing PD: Hooking Your Students

I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text!As a long-time writing teacher and instructional coach, I’ve learned about this great debate among ELA educators: to provide sentence starters or to not provide sentence starters.  I’ve been shocked to hear that many teachers are very resistant to using sentence starters because they have the belief that sentence starters make students’ writing “too easy, too formulaic, or too boring.” But I have one question for you. What’s the alternative?  This episode dives deep into the benefits of using sentences starters and might even challenge some of your current beliefs surrounding them.  Links mentioned in this episode: ebacademics.com/jugglingjustification Are you enjoying the podcast? Tag us @ebacademics and let us know which episode you're listening to! Make sure to Subscribe and leave us a Review! Your review helps us reach even more middle school ELA teachers just like you! It would mean so much to us. To leave a review in iTunes, click HERE and scroll down to Rating and Reviews. Click on "Write a Review" and let us know how this podcast is helping you in your ELA classroom! Other episodes you might enjoy: Constructive Criticism: How to Change Your Mindset and Be Open to Feedback Mini Literary Analysis Writing PD: Hooking Your Students

I’d love to hear from you! Send me a text!As we round out 2019, let's talk about how our limiting beliefs are holding us back from being the best version of ourselves, and ultimately, the best teacher for our students.  This episode is short, but powerful, and we urge you to spend some time thinking about what we've brought up and the questions that we leave you with. How can you show up in 2020 that will have the biggest impact in your classroom? Links mentioned in this episode: ebacademics.com/livetraining ebacademics.com/course Are you enjoying the podcast? Tag us @ebacademics and let us know which episode you're listening to! Make sure to Subscribe and leave us a Review! Your review helps us reach even more middle school ELA teachers just like you! It would mean so much to us. To leave a review in iTunes, click HERE and scroll down to Rating and Reviews. Click on "Write a Review" and let us know how this podcast is helping you in your ELA classroom! Other episodes you might enjoy: Constructive Criticism: How to Change Your Mindset and Be Open to Feedback Mini Literary Analysis Writing PD: Hooking Your Students