The AI Panic of a few years ago has officially left the building. In 2026, middle school teachers are no longer asking if they should use AI in the classroom, but how to use it in the classroom. During the middle school years, students move away from learning to read and into the writing to argue phase of secondary education. However, this is also where many students hit a wall. Students have a hard time organizing a five-paragraph essay while also managing grammar, synta

Making an inference is one of the most important reading comprehension skills teachers can help students develop. It allows students to read between the lines, using clues from the text combined with their prior knowledge to draw logical conclusions. Unlike directly stated facts, inferences require critical thinking, making this skill essential for understanding stories, informational texts, and test passages. In this post, I’ll explain what it means to make an inference,

We've all heard the powerful lines of the poem In Flanders Fields. But what makes this poem so powerful, and why does it still resonate with us over a century later? As teachers, we often introduce "In Flanders Fields" as a key part of our Remembrance Day lessons. However, simply reciting the words can leave students with a factual understanding without a deeper, more personal connection. In this blog post, I will share an In Flanders Fields lesson plan.

The school bell rings, students spill into the classroom, and you have a brief but critical window of opportunity. That's the first five to ten minutes of class, a time that can either be chaotic or productive. How do you turn that initial flurry of activity into a focused, purposeful start? The answer lies in the strategic use of bell ringers. Bell ringers are short, focused activities designed to be completed by students as soon as they enter the classroom. They are a po