Ignite Your Teaching

Send us Fan Mail Do you use inquiry in your math classroom? Perhaps you should be!   In this episode, we're going to talk about how you can use inquiry pedagogies in your math classroom to build a better math class.   We will mostly focus on the following questions:   Was your math program student-centered? Did your math program harness your students’ choice and voice? Did you support your st...

Send us Fan Mail Does the thought of assessing inquiry keep you up at night?   I totally get that! There is a lot to prepare!   You might feel like you have a lot of extra work during this time because you have neglected some papers or you feel like you need to justify the marks you give by finding evidence.   The good news is that you actually don’t need to be overwhelmed by assessment!   In this...

Send us Fan Mail Are your inquiry-based lessons effective and engaging?   In this episode, I am walking you through the exact process that my team and I use to plan out our inquiry units for grades 3-6.    I have spent the last 8 years developing this systematic process so that you don’t have to, and I even include a downloadable to make it easier for you to get started.   I am covering why includ...

Send us Fan Mail Do you feel unprepared to teach your students coding?   You’re not alone!   When coding was added to our curriculum, I knew that I needed Dena from Miss Tech Queen to help me and all of you understand how to teach coding.   Dena has such amazing and practical ideas about how to use coding, computers and all things stem in her classroom, so she is sharing that with us today in this...

Send us Fan Mail Are you having fun in your science classroom yet?  You should be!   Science is supposed to be full of problem-solving, exploration and discovery. Yet too often we simply skip all that in favour of trying to get it all done quickly using dull worksheets lesson after lesson.     Science class shouldn’t be about worksheets   So It’s time we level up our science lessons. Creating a sc...

Send us Fan Mail Sometimes when teachers think of using inquiry in their classroom they think of the most impossible situation.  Something that most teachers would struggle to accomplish.   But Inquiry can be simple.   In this episode, let's look at breaking down what we think inquiry should look like and challenge our thinking to see that inquiry can be simple.   Remember to Subscribe for mo...

Send us Fan Mail Hello, hello!   I wanted to share with you a little about my time teaching split grades (which has been the majority of my teaching career!). Unlike probably the majority of teachers I actually do enjoy teaching split grades and over the years I’ve picked up a few tips & tricks along the way to make it more enjoyable and easier!   So here are my strategies that make teaching s...

Send us Fan Mail Hello, hello!   Today I wanted to share some ideas about leveling up your science and social studies lessons using four different methods!   Let’s get to it.   These subjects can be two of the most difficult for teachers to wrap their heads around because there's SO much content to cover. So, sometimes we think, let’s just grab a workbook so students can work through that and...

Send us Fan Mail Hello, hello! Let’s talk today about differentiating. Specifically with ELL students. We’re gonna look at the planning, implementing, and assessing stages of your regular classroom and how you can modify and plan lessons that simply and easily integrate your ELL’s. One of the things I do not support is a complete separate program for ELLs in the classroom. These students need to b...

Send us Fan Mail Hey, hey! Today I wanted to talk a little about books. Particularly picture books. Or really any material we are reading in our classroom. My challenge for you is to think about fitting the literature in your room into 3 different categories: Windows Mirrors Prisms If you’re looking for more book examples go to: https://www.ml-go.com/ilbooklist Remember to Subscribe for more insig...

Send us Fan Mail Hello, hello! I hope everyone is having a fantastic week so far! Sooo raise your hand if you use choice boards… 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️ And if you hadn’t before the pandemic, chances are you’re using them now. Why? Because they are a GREAT strategy for asynchronous learning (so if you still haven’t tried them, give it a shot! Hopefully this week's email will inspire you.) The th...

Send us Fan Mail   Hello, hello!   I hope you are all having a fantastic week so far! Today I wanted to talk a little about assessing student’s work in this digital world.   Most of us are probably marking or grading work that students have completed remotely. That means we may be using new tools to grade the completed work. 👩🏼‍💻   Personally, I’ve actually been using Google classroom for about...

Send us Fan Mail Hello, hello!   So, it looks like we’re in this whole remote teaching thing for the long haul. Whether that’s a month, two months, I’m not sure. But I don’t want you to wait a second longer when it comes to getting some of your time back.   That means I am going to do everything I can to support you and help make your remote teaching experience less stressful. We’re all in this to...

Send us Fan Mail This week I want to talk all about your home teaching space! Because the reality is, I think we’re going to be doing this whole remote-teaching thing for just a little bit longer. There are 3 areas we’re going to want to look at in the home classroom. Tech Space Demo Let’s jump in! Remember to Subscribe for more insights on how to navigate the complexities of teaching with efficie...

Send us Fan Mail Hi, Teachers! I hope you’re having an awesome week so far. I wanted to talk to you today about setting realistic goals and aligning priorities. For most of us, the new challenge in our career is remote teaching. We can set realistic goals for ourselves when it comes to taking on this challenge while at the same time making sure it doesn’t take over our lives. I want to talk to you...

Send us Fan Mail I hope you have all had an okay start back into the second half of the school year. Now, I know this is not what we signed up for. In fact, it is VERY different than what we signed up for. So I wanted to share some tips today to help you break through the overwhelm and stress that comes with being a “digital” teacher.   First, take away all the noise and chaos and get down to the...

Send us Fan Mail I’m popping in today to talk all about student teacher writing conferences!   Whether you already have these one on one sessions with your students or not, I wanted to share the structure I use in my Ignited Literacy Program and how these conferences help students gain confidence in their writing skills. 📝   What’s great about these assessments is that it gives an opportunity to...

Send us Fan Mail Hi friends! It seems to me that there are two distinct types of teachers. Those that use Literature Circles and those that use Literature Centers. Now over my career, I’ve used both Literature Centers and Literature Circles (we’ll get to my personal favorite at the end 😉 ). Neither is right or wrong and BOTH have a valid place in the classroom. If you’re still deciding which is t...

Send us Fan Mail Raise your hand if Lesson Planning feels like the biggest time thief. 🙋🏼‍♀️ Yes? Then boy am I glad I popped in your inbox. I know firsthand just how much time (not to mention stress) lesson planning can take. So I’ve gathered my top 5 tips to help you streamline this process and get you some of that free time back. 💆🏼‍♀️ Working yourself to the bone isn’t healthy for you, you...

Send us Fan Mail Today I wanted to take a little trip down memory lane. I’ve dug back through the Madly Learning Archives to gather the very BEST teaching advice for the junior grades. So let’s jump right in, shall we?! Here are my favorite teaching tips through the years! Remember to Subscribe for more insights on how to navigate the complexities of teaching with efficiency and impact. Share your...

Send us Fan Mail Know something we don’t talk about much around here? 🧬🦠 SCIENCE 🧫🧪 Science class is a time that can be SO much fun for our students. But have you been busy just handing out worksheets? Then...yeah, not so much fun for students OR teachers. 🥱 So if you’re ready to transform your science block into an interactive, engaging, educational, and FUN experience, just stick with me. W...

Send us Fan Mail I want to start off this week with a quick story. Recently, my daughter woke up with a runny nose, congested, sore throat, and a sore stomach. This meant she would not be going to school. 🤒 This made me think about the current situation we are in. If you have family members that rely on you to take care of them or if you don’t pass your Covid screening test, it means no teaching...

Send us Fan Mail This week I wanted to tell you about a FREE program that I have been LOVING. I use it to track student assessments and communicate with parents. 🥳 If you’ve ever thought of using spreadsheets then this would be an awesome solution for you!! It is MUCH easier to use and more versatile. Without further ado...let me tell you about Airtable. Remember to Subscribe for more insights on...

Send us Fan Mail There are SO many factors that can impact our students and their ability to read. The reality is, we may be teaching in Grade 5, but not every student is going to be at that Grade 5 reading level - the range can sometimes even be huge . So, let's talk about ways we can modify and accommodate for our students who are reading below grade level. Remember to Subscribe for more in...

Send us Fan Mail Now that most of us are back to school let talk about classroom management. I have six tips, tools and strategies that you can think about when planning out how you will manage the behaviour in your classroom. Not all classroom management systems are designed to work the way you want them to. In my first year of teaching I had the one I was using backfire in an unexpected way. Fro...