Great sites for Journalism & English Teachers

#1 - If you teach journalism--or if you want students to understand their First-Amendment rights--you need to know the Student Press Law Center.  Great learning from the most reliable source on student-press law.

#2 - The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) is my favorite site for college-writing tips and information. This is one of the oldest and most respected online writing labs. It contains resources for students and teachers from seventh-grade through adult education. MLA and APA style guides are clear and thorough.

#3 - My third site to mention is the Iowa Council of Teachers of English (ICTE) Facebook Group Page. Opened May 4, 2014, by the indomitable Jenny Paulsen, our community of English Teacher is already 227 members strong. Ask questions, share strategies, link blog posts, connect! Best English-teacher support out there!

Day 26:What are your three favorite go-to sites for help/tips/resources in your teaching?

Reflection: Unrelated to today's topic: I had a crazy rough time at AIW training today. Maybe this is what I should have blogged about. My learning was huge, but I felt like I'd been through the stump mulcher.

I'd taken a "bundle" (see Wednesday's blog post) to score, but for a variety of reasons, we were pressed for time. My lesson was chewed up, and suggestions for fixing it were spat back to me rapid-fire, like one of those tree-stump chippers. Our well-intentioned instructor tried to salvage our experience by negotiating extended time, but we never got out from under the anxiety the rush had created. I didn't realize this in so many words until I shared my experience tonight with my daughter who is student teaching in secondary math this semester. She said, "Rushing puts a poison bomb in the room." She told me how a co-teacher had entered the room on a shortened day and announced "We don't have much time..." and how the lesson had dissolved from there. As time-crunch anxiety rises, teachers push harder, and the students (and teachers) grow more anxious. Poison bomb. Let me remember that.

My babies turned 20 on this week. Had to share.