Reading in the Wild - Chapter 1

I absolutely loved Donalyn Miller's book The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child, so I was very excited to see that she released a new book - Reading in the Wild: The Book Whisperer's Keys to Cultivating Lifelong Reading Habits AND that Catherine over at The Brown Bag Teacher has organized a summer book study of it.

Chapter 1 - Wild Readers Dedicate Time to Read

Already, this book has lots of ideas that I can integrate into my classroom. In fact, I suspect that I will re-read each chapter just to make sure I'm recording all of the ideas so I remember them in August. (And I may go back and re-read The Book Whisperer, too!) But one thing that I really want to emphasize this year is building a community of readers. I like the idea of students sharing the books they're reading and making recommendations to each other. Personally, I use GoodReads to track that information for myself (I've blogged about that before here). I've also had my students blog about their reading (see here). But what I'd really like is something more like GoodReads - a social networking site - but appropriate for fourth graders. 

I recently stumbled across the site Reading Rewards through a Twitter Chat, and this might be the answer I'm looking for. 

This site allows you to set up your class into a reading community where they can create libraries of the books they've read, write book reviews, get and make recommendations, and make a wishlist of books they want to read. There is also a reading log component and a reward system that allows you and parents to create rewards based on achieving individualized reading goals. I haven't had a chance to try this out with students yet, but based on my exploration of the site, it looks very promising.

Do you have any experience with the Reading Rewards website? Have you come across any other sites you'd recommend for building a community of readers? I'd love to hear about it in the comments.

10 Must-Have Tools for the Busy Teacher

This year was uniquely challenging for me. I had my biggest class ever (28 students) , and I was co-teaching all day with teachers and paras from the special ed department--also a first. Meanwhile, I started working on my PhD, and my toddler constantly kept me busy. My plate has never been so full!

If you're a teacher who often feels pulled in every direction, then this list is for you. These are my top 10 tools for juggling it all. Hopefully you'll find some to use as well!

1. Nozbe

Nozbe is the ultimate task list manager. You can organize by projects -- school, work, home, etc., create recurring tasks, and so much more. I can access it from any device, add attachments, and email stuff to my to-do list. I started out with the free version, and I quickly upgraded to the paid version. At $96/year, the paid version has a hefty price tag, but this app was SO much better than any other task manager I'd tried, and it's been worth every penny. If you're someone who has lots of projects going at once, this app is worth exploring.

2. Evernote

This is my brain online. All of my coursework and notes are in Evernote, and all of my anecdotal records and student work samples are in here as well. I was able to use the free version for many years, and then once my husband and I decided to go digital with all of our financial documents, etc., I upgraded to the premium version. At $35/year, it's pretty affordable.

3. Dropbox

 I don't think I could function without Dropbox. I switch between so many devices between work, home, and school each day, but Dropbox allows me to keep track of everything. All of my lesson plans, TpT purchases, readings for class, and more are in my Dropbox account. I'm still living off of the free space, but I'm getting the daily reminders that my Dropbox is nearly full. Might need to upgrade that soon, too. Premium accounts offer 100 GB of storage for $99/year.

4. GoodReader

 I've used this app a lot with my students, but I'm finding it to be totally clutch for my grad school stuff, too. I'm doing tons of research for my courses and scoping out dissertation ideas, and GoodReader allows me to annotate all of the PDF's I'm amassing. I've created a folder on Dropbox for all of the articles I've gathered, and I can sync that folder to GoodReader so I can read it all on my iPad. I can also send it back to Evernote when I finish. One of my dear friends told me that I'd have laundry baskets full of research cluttering my house while I worked on my PhD, but not so...It's all electronic!

5. GoogleCalendar

I have a variety of calendars on Google -- class schedules, deadlines, school events, etc. Some of these I share with my husband so we can both be aware of each other's events. Other calendars I share with my students and their parents so they can be aware of upcoming events and tests. I like that all of my calendars are color-coded so I know which calendar I'm looking at, and I can select/de-select different calendars to narrow my focus if I'm looking for something in particular.

6. YouCanBook.Me

This free site allows me to share portions of my calendar with parents so they can schedule parent-teacher conferences. I choose the days they can see, set the times they can schedule, and manage the maximum time blocks they can reserve. They don't get to see any of the events on my calendar, just whether I'm available or not. If they reserve a time slot, it will automatically add it to my calendar and send me an email. It's eliminated the back-and-forth process of conference scheduling and allowed me to manage my time better.

7. Planbook.com

Since I was co-teaching this year, I needed to find a way to share my plans easily from week to week. I tested out Planbook in August, and I loved it. I like that you can extend or bump lessons, attach files, and customize the fields that appear. It's a great resource that's keeping me much more organized. You can get a free trial of it before paying the $12 for an annual subscription.

8. Typinator

This is a tool that's new to me, but Typinator is a text expander tool. There are several pieces of text that I find myself typing or copying/pasting over and over. Typinator allows me to create typing shortcuts for all of those. For example, if I want to type my blog address as a hyperlink when I comment on someone's blog, I can simply type "~bl" and it will place the text there for me. I also use it for standard replies to emails such as when parents email me to say their child will be absent. I can type "~abs" and it will write: "Thanks for letting me know about the absence. I hope your child is feeling better soon! Today's assignments will be posted on our class website, and let me know if there's anything else you need." Four key strokes = all of that. I find typing way faster than using the mouse, so this is a time saver that quickly adds up. It's only available for Macs, and it's priced in Euros (converts to around $36 US), but I use it all the time.

9. GoodReads

Distinct from GoodReader, GoodReads is an online community surrounding books. It allows me to keep track of the books I'm reading and which books I want to read next. As I'm starting my dissertation research, I'm constantly finding book titles that I want to check out. Similarly, there are lots of teaching books and children's books that I want to investigate someday, and GoodReads helps me organize all of that. Best of all, I can use its scanning feature to scan barcodes when I'm browsing in the bookstore.

10. Edmodo

I used Edmodo a lot for collecting student work and grading tests/quizzes this year. It managed all of the submissions and kept the work organized for me so I could be more efficient with tracking these things. It also allowed me to create assignments, give and grade quizzes, communicate with students and parents, and so much more. This is a great free learning management system that was a centerpiece of my classroom this year.


With the exception of Typinator, which is only on my computers, all of these apps are cloud-based or mobile-friendly so I can get to them from any device. When I'm shifting between my iPhone, iPad, laptop, and desktop, that's critical. I may be busy, but I can get to my projects anytime, anywhere, and I'm not hauling around tons of materials everywhere I go. These tools boost efficiency and minimize life clutter.

What are some tools you're using this year to help with productivity? I'd love to hear more recommendations in the comments.


This post contained some affiliate links meaning that if you click on the link and purchase the app, a small part of your subscription cost will go to me instead of entirely to the company. I'm only recommending products that I highly use and pay for myself, however, and I hope you'll find value in these resources as well. 

How to Organize your Summer Reading

Summer is the perfect time for me to make some progress on the massive stack of books that I accumulate throughout the year. You know that stack -- and if you're like me, that stack may have spawned offspring and multiplied into several stacks around the house. And given the number of summer book studies I keep reading about, I know the stack will continue to grow. Like last week, when I saw that Misty was going to read Number Talks, and I had to get the book.

Or this morning, when I read that Beth at Thinking of Teaching and Brenda at Primary Inspired are hosting a summer book study of Building Mathematical Comprehension: Using Literacy Strategies to Make Meaning by Laney Simmons. I want to read that, too!

With all that I'm currently reading, want to read, and have finished reading, I needed a way to keep track of all these awesome books. Then I remembered GoodReads (this is very distinct from the GoodReader app that I've blogged about before).

GoodReads is a social media site focused on reading. I first started using it in 2010 after I finished reading The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller (if you haven't read this book, it is a must-read).

She referenced the site in the book, and I used it through my computer for quite a while. Eventually, as I got busier, I started using it less. I recently got an email update about a friend who was using it, however, and it reminded me that I should revisit the site. My how GoodReads has improved since I used it last! First, GoodReads has mobile apps now to help you keep your reading interests up-to-date.

Now, I'm not such a bibliophile that I need to give status updates of what I'm reading non-stop. But these mobile apps have a fabulous feature that I love: a scanner. (Here's the view of the app from my iPad. The iPhone version is very similar.)

The scanner allows you to scan the barcode on books and then add it to a virtual shelf. Your GoodReads account has 3 default shelves: read, currently reading, and to-read. Shelves are like tags, and you can create your own shelves based on topics or any other organization you'd like. Books can also be housed on multiple shelves at once.

I love using the scan feature to quickly organize the books that I'm reading or plan to read. Given the iPhone app, it's also a dangerous helpful feature when I go to bookstores and see books that I'd like to read someday. I just scan them in, and it pulls all sorts of data for me about reviews of the book, average rating of the book, page count, etc. For eBooks I've purchased that don't have a scannable barcode, I can also search by title or author.

In addition to using this to manage my summer reading, I expect to use this app more in my classroom library to inventory my collection, identify books that I've read or want to read, write recommendations for my students, and so on.

If you decide to give GoodReads a try, feel free to connect with me there. I'd love to connect with other teachers to see what others are reading.

What are some books that you're planning to read this summer? Any other ideas for ways to use this app? I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments section, and I hope to connect with you on GoodReads!

Happy summer reading!