Before I was a published writer, I was a teacher. Actually, I still am, but now I teach adult learners in college instead of middle schoolers. Throughout my twelve years in the public school system I learned and gathered and grew a lot. Now I do my best to share all those lessons through my Blog and YouTube Channel and TpT store. Below you will see several posts I’ve written specifically for teachers. I hope you find them useful and can take a bit of what you learn back into your own classroom.
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~ Amanda Zieba
Blog Posts for Teachers
Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Newbery Award
On Monday the American Library Association had it’s Superbowl. They announced the 2022 Newbery award winners among many other awards) and proudly declared the best of the best published in 2021. Like any word nerd worth her salt, I was transfixed to my computer screen as the presentation of the award ceremony was streamed. The names announced are my celebrities, my rockstars, my “dream dinner party attendees”. Authors change the world one book at a time. These people, who already had made a major impact, were about to send shock waves of energy throughout the kidlit world, and I couldn’t wait to see who would be named.
What is First Chapter Friday? 4 Reasons You Should Give First Chapter Fridays a Try
What is First Chapter Friday? It’s a reading engagement strategy disguised as a fun weekly activity. In it’s most basic elements, First Chapter Friday is when someone reads aloud the first chapter of a book, in an effort to interest students in a particular story and/or increase enthusiasm for reading.
If you are looking have more students with books in their hands, more readers excited about the selections presented to them, and overall more enthusiasm when it comes to just plain reading, then read on, becuase this blog post is jam-packed not only with 4 reasons why you should give First Chapter Fridays a try, but also tons of ideas for implementation. If you are more of a video or audio person, you can watch/listen to this same information, right HERE, in this video.
Newbery Award Activities for Your Classroom (from the Word Nerd)
I’m not a huge fan of winter, but I really do like January. It’s a great time for a fresh start and a mental refresh, as well as a logical time to press start on new goals. It’s also when the American Library Association announces it’s annual awards, including the most pretigious honor of them all, the Newbery Award.
As a middle school teacher I loved teaching my students about this classic children’s award - using the buzz of the event to introduce them to a barage of high quality reading selections. Sounds great, right? Luckily for you, I’ve gathered up all of my resources for you to make teaching this unit not only easy (for you) but engaging (for your students).
Bouncing in with 4 Great Basketball Books
By now you likely know that I am a WORD NERD, but did you also know that I am a HUGE college basketball fan? It all started back when I was in college and dating a boy obsessed with March Madness. I swear I could have stood in front of the TV with a piping hot pizza and a hundred dollar bill clutched in my outstretched hand and all he would have said is, “Ummm, can you move to the left? The game is on.” Even though I was a “short girl” who was terrible at ball sports (okay, both of those things are still true) I refused to be left out. I wanted in on the action. So I learned everything I could about the teams involved, the seed ranking process, the history of the tournament, EVERYTHING. (I also learned that this wasn’t the guy for me, but that’s not really the point of this blog post.)
The point is I now love reading and college basketball. I’m not alone. March Madness has become the #1 sporting event in the nation… bigger than the World Series. Bigger than the Super Bowl. Even people who hate sports get into the action, blindly filling out brackets and cheering for teams they’ve never even heard of (much the way I did my first few years following the tournament). The point is… there is a tangible buzz around college basketball this time of year and it can be used as a great tool to hook sports loving readers. Here are 4 amazing middle grade basketball books featuring a wide variety of formats (novel, graphic novel, novel in verse) and casts of characters who all have one thing in common - they LOVE basketball.
3 Reasons to Invest in Author Visits in Schools
If you want to make an impact on a young writer, invite a professional one into your classroom. It could be an author, but it could also be a journalist, a historian or a copy editor. It could be a magazine editor, a website content creator or a screenwriter. It could be a blogger, a technical writer or a playwright. Show your students their options and watch for what lights them up. This is the magic of author visits. Here are three additional reasons to invest in author visits…
9 Nonfiction Books to Add to Your Classroom Library
I think that most people either fall into the Fiction or Nonfiction camp. For example, I read mostly fiction, while I’m not sure my husband has picked up a novel since tenth grade. Don’t get me wrong, he reads all the time… but not made up stories. His preferred brand of text falls into nonfiction articles on sports, nutrition and education. I will occasionally read a memoir or inspiring business self-help book, but mostly, I stick to fiction. But we are both readers, one no greater, better or grander than the other.
So, in the spirit of broadening our reading horizons and tapping into our students’ personal interests, here are 9 nonfiction books to include in your classroom library to spark curiosity and wonder. With each book I’ve included a related activity so that you can really make an impact and bring these reading experiences to life.
2022 WSRA Recap from the Word Nerd Amanda Zieba
To say it was a joy to be out and amongst fellow educators, readers and writers last week… is an understatement. I had a blast in Milwaukee as I talked, learned, listened, ate, book-gushed (yes, that’s a real verb!), interviewed and taught at the 2022 Wisconsin State Reading Association Conference.
For those who weren’t able to attend, here are just a few of the many, many highlights of this fabulous organization’s 2022 conference, The Art of Literacy. Even though I’m a not usually a numbers girl, I’m going to do this in the form of a count down. 3, 2, 1… here we go.
Takeaways from the TpT Forward 2021 Digital Conference
I made a goal at the beginning of the year to increase my monthly Teachers Pay Teachers sales to $500 a month by the end of 2021. Goals are great, but require a certain level of commitment! If you don’t do any work, you can’t expect to make progress, am I right? The first major action I took toward achieving my goal was to sign up for Lauren Thompson’s Teaching Coaching Community: Better Together Experience. Through Lauren’s shared experiences and knowledge, I was able to more than double my monthly earnings (from around $120 to around $250 a month). I’d reached my half way point!
Rather than stop there, I pushed forward again and registered for the Teachers Pay Teachers Digital Conference. I know it’s hard to replace the magic of an in-person conference, but I really appreciated that I could experience and learn all the presenters had to offer from my desk chair without upending my daily life at home. And my-oh-my did I learn a lot! I promise I won’t give away all their goods for free, but do want to share some of the tips and tricks I learned.
WSRA - Looking Back (to 2013) and Ahead to This Year's Conference
** This post is a part of a series I’m doing this year… in which I repost articles I wrote years ago for a different platform and are no longer on the internet. These posts have a dual purpose: to reuse quality material in an effort to share solid content with my audience and free up my content creation calendar to make even more great stuff. Each piece includes the — old— post along with some new insights. I hope you’ll enjoy this walk down memory lane with me, which I promise will be both education and relevant! **
#MGBOOKTOBER
Last week I was scrolling through my Instagram feed when I noticed that it was suddenly inundated with pictures of middle grade book covers accompanied by the hashtag #MGBOOKTOBER. This caught my attention for several reasons. As a former middle school teacher, I LOVE middle grade titles. I love their innocence and the way these titles help readers see the world through the eyes of their target audience, mainly, kids stuck in the hard times of middle school. Many adults have recently been drawn to read books in the YA age bracket, but as of yet, this slightly lower target age range seems to be outside of the average reader’s radar. I am thrilled that #MGBOOKTOBER is attempting to change that.
Diverse Books: A Few Thoughts and Suggestions
One of my favorite tasks as a classroom teacher was buying books for my students. Whether they were for our classroom library, for lit circle selections, or for my favorite part of each class, our read aloud, I loved picking out books! I tried to choose stories that would not only entertain my students, but books that would also help them grow their reading skills, their empathy for others and their understanding of the world.
More than ever there is a push for diversity in the books we as authors, educators and booksellers offer to children. The ultimate goal is to write, share and sell books that will allow kids of all backgrounds to see themselves on the printed page. In this post I share a few of my favorite books that fall into different categories of diversity including: family make up, poverty, differing abilities, race and more.
Irish Strong William: A Story for St. Patrick's Day
St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner and so I wanted to take some time to highlight one of my older stories, Irish Strong William. The Orphan Train Riders stories were the first books I ever wrote and published, and just like the trips children took on the orphan trains, my own journey seems a long time ago! Back in 2013 my kiddos were toddlers, I was still working as a full time reading teacher and my author dreams were just starting to bloom. I think knowing that these books were my beginning will always reserve them a special place in my heart. I also love that these stories are a great addition to classrooms, especially around the holidays.
Engaging Activities to Use in Your Classroom for Valentine's Day
Valentine’s Day in the middle school classroom is a special kind of painful. So many hormones. So many awkard emotions. So much energy!!! When left to their own devices, middle schoolers can turn this romantic holiday ugly real quick. Okay, I know there’s potential for you to witness lots of sweet-first-love moments and kind gestures, but in my twelve years of teaching experience… those gems are far out numbered by encounters everyone involved would rather forget.
I also know that these days in the classroom can feel like a complete and total bust… a loss of instruction time right alongside your sanity. So today I want to help you make a plan for Valentine’s Day that will leave your students smiling and walking away having learned something new and you walking out of the building energized with the confidence of knowing you conquered the holiday, the hormones and your learning objectives (along with a bag full of student-given treats). Sound like a lovely? Here are 8 activities for a wide variety of grade/maturity levels for your lesoson plans that will embrace the holiday, capture your students’ attention and accomplish some academic objectives.
