Hello!

Nicki Clausen-Grace

Don’t you love how you feel this time of summer? Enough time has gone by since the last day of school that you can fully relax, you have probably read a book or two about teaching, or maybe you’ve gone to some workshops, and your creative juices are starting to flow as you envision this next school year.

I’m even more excited than usual because our book on teaching nonfiction text features, Reading the Whole Page from Maupin House, has just come out and today I am launching this blog.

Do you use a lot of sticky-notes in your classroom? We do – for everything from identifying main idea to recording notes for literature circle discussions. Because there are sticky-note pads all over my room, I usually end up writing my reflections, epiphanies, and to-do lists on them as well.  This blog is a more organized and public place to keep those deep thoughts and anecdotes. It took me a while to warm to the idea of blogging, but I’ve been reading some great blogs by other people and think I might have something to share. Plus, it might cut down on the little yellow squares floating around my classroom. 

If you’ve read either of my first two books with Michelle Kelley, Comprehension Shouldn’t Be Silent (IRA, 2007) and R⁵ in the Classroom (IRA, 2008), then you will probably enjoy reading along as I chronicle the first six weeks of school in my classroom. Just like you, my first weeks of school are traditionally punctuated by broken air conditioning, way too many assemblies, and the ubiquitous rainy day dismissal. So you might find it fun to see how it goes as I try once again to assess, teach learning structures, teach text features, develop rules, team-build, create a safe learning environment, and begin to develop both metacognition and reading engagement – all in the first six weeks of school. Hmmm…I’m a little tired already. I think I’ll take a nap.