Today, it’s more important than ever for students to become independent thinkers and self-directed learners. In tomorrow’s workplace, they’ll be expected to learn-on-the-go in order to solve problems we can only imagine today. To help them meet those future challenges, we’ve redesigned our curriculum—giving students progressively more responsibility for their learning as they advance through […]

“I’m going to tell you about…” Seeing this phrase at the beginning of a paragraph/essay/research paper is, to me, the equivalent of fingernails on a chalkboard. I’m also not a real big fan of the “first, next, then, last” system much past third grade. Writing, even expository writing, doesn’t have to be boring. Of course, […]

A sure-fire way to produce a look of panic on a student’s face is to tell them to get out their writing journal and write about whatever they want. Sure, there are a random few that are willing to take on this task, but more often than not, the kids will just freeze in place. […]

Boy did I touch a nerve in this month’s family seminar when talking about boys and writing assignments – not the creativity, but simply the mechanics of the process. SO MANY wrote to me about this particular issue, that I had to provide you all with my thoughts and some feedback. The emails typically went […]

Staging a Good Paragraph Tips by Martha Cole, Education Counselor What can you do with colored index cards? No, not cover one eye for a vision test. They‘re not for writing recipes. Nope, not for an art project either. Colored index cards can be used to create a great hands-on resource for staging an academic […]

A recent CBC news article said,  “The practice of students endlessly copying letters and sentences from a chalkboard is a thing of the past. Teaching perfect strokes and proper curves in cursive writing is no longer at the top of a teacher’s lesson plan.  With the advent of new technologies like tablets and smartphones, writing […]

When the dog days of summer are getting you down, here are some ideas to put a spring back in your family’s step and make vacation time also educational. Writing/Composition: Suggest your child create a journal. A journal can take many forms depending on the desires of the creator. Allow your student to be creative […]

Writing is a process that involves several distinct steps: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. It is important for a writer to work through each of the steps in order to ensure that he has produced a polished, complete piece.  The writing process is not always linear.  A writer may move back and forth between […]

Writing is a process that involves several distinct steps: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. It is important for a writer to work through each of the steps in order to ensure that he has produced a polished, complete piece.  The writing process is not always linear.  A writer may move back and forth between […]

It is 3:30 pm and Janice Robertson has just asked her twelve-year-old daughter, Emma, to write a two-page essay on the formation of volcanoes. As Janice prepares dinner, she notices Emma staring blankly at the paper. Ten more minutes pass and Emma is still not writing. Well aware of her daughter’s disdain for writing papers, […]