Happy summer, my dear teachers! I hope you are enjoying a well-deserved break. As for me, my break usually consists of catching up on readings—essays, professional texts, books—that I haven’t had time to read yet. But for this summer, I’ve been doing my readings a little differently. You see, I’ve started a writing group with... Continue Reading →
On a recommendation from two people I admire in teaching, I picked up Suleika Jaouad’s book The Book of Alchemy. I just started it, but I can already feel its effects: I want to create and journal and draw and read. I love books that inspire me either to create or to think deeply. This... Continue Reading →
I recently read Ian McEwan's What We Can Know. I marked a passage about memory. I am fascinated by memory right now, especially since attention and memory are so important in learning. I recently read an article that discussed how our attention spans are adversely affected by our social media lives, specifically short-form video. These... Continue Reading →
We’ve been snowed in for DAYS now, and as such, it was a great time to check off some of my yearly reading list. I (Holly) made a list of physical books that I own that I MUST READ before I buy any new books. (Does anyone else have this overconsumption problem with books like... Continue Reading →
Sometimes a passage or a line—whether it’s from a book, an article, a song, a reel, an image, or just an idea spoken to life—inspires my creativity, makes me want to write…something. I don’t always know what that something is until I start composing. But sometimes I know exactly what I want to write about.... Continue Reading →
Sometimes it’s easy to forget the joy of teaching amongst the constant grind. When I forget, it’s because of one main thing—I’m doing more “administrative” tasks than I usually do. At the end of the semester, the administrative tasks seem to pile on and steal, frankly, some of my joy. But I still feel the... Continue Reading →
My students walked into class one day this week talking about their 2025 Spotify wraps. I had never heard of this, probably because I don’t have Spotify. Once the students, in complete disbelief, explained to me what a Spotify wrap was, I couldn’t help but think I needed an NCTE 2025 “wrap” of what I... Continue Reading →
by Holly Sheppard Riesco My dear teachers, I have a confession: sometimes, sometimes, I find my own class boring. Gasp! I know! Terrible to admit, but it’s true. My students and I are grinding away at understanding how to develop commentary and how to synthesize different perspectives into our thinking and writing, and while I... Continue Reading →
by Holly Sheppard Riesco I recently received a note from a student that he wanted to thank me for how intentional I had been in my teaching since he realized how it helped build him and other students toward the next English credit course. What a note to receive! (Even if I knew that the... Continue Reading →
Recently, I spoke with a former colleague not just about teaching but also about hiring. She said this: "It is hard to find real WRITING teachers anymore." The conversation stayed with me for a while, obviously. In recent research I did with preservice teachers, I noticed a pattern within their comments: They loved reading. This... Continue Reading →