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 →
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 →
A few summers ago, I (Katie) attended a conference of English educators where the hottest topic of conversation was the emergence of generative AI in schools. That year it wasn’t uncommon to pass groups of teachers sharing horror stories from the past school year that starred ChatGPT as the evil monster lurking in student writing... 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 (Katie) watched Dazed and Confused, the 1993 cult classic directed by Richard Linklater, for the first time. I know, I know, I can practically hear you screaming at me from across the ether, “How are you just now watching this movie?!”, to which I’d reply, as I do when my friends ask me... 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 →
Katie and I recently had the pleasure of presenting with the rest of our joyful team at NCTE 2024's Heart, Hope, and Humanity Convention. Our presentation focused on one particular chapter of Joyful Literacies--"Moving Pretty Fast: Literacies as Pop Culture." We believe wholeheartedly in joyful literacies pedagogy, meaning that we must build our daily plans... Continue Reading →
We are so joyful that we get to share our book, Joyful Literacies in Secondary English Language Arts, with others in the English teaching world on January 21, 2025! The title's a mouthful, so we've shortened it to Joyful Literacies for our accompanying blog. With all that is going on in education--the constant changes, the starts... Continue Reading →
Joyful Literacies 