Teaching With Inquiry

How do you feel about teaching language arts? If you are feeling overwhelmed, overworked, stressed, and uninspired, you are not alone.    It is easy to feel this way when teaching this subject because there are so many components to consider when creating the perfect language arts program. You want to teach in a way that actually engages students so that they use their language skills every day.    In this episode, I am sharing all of the key components to creating a language arts program that will have students succeeding and surpassing their educational goals.    I am sharing tips on scaffolding, differentiating your instruction, how to relate your literacy lessons to the real world, and more.    Using these high-yield strategies will help you design a language arts program that increases student engagement and success, so tune in to hear them!   I would love to connect on Facebook or Instagram! Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/194Remember to Subscribe for more insights on how to navigate the

What’s the biggest barrier to meeting students’ needs in your classroom? Time.    You’re being pulled in so many different directions, and you only have a finite amount of time.    If you’re spending all of your time planning an entire language arts program from beginning to end, you’re taking that time away from actually implementing the program and meeting your students’ needs. In this episode, I am talking about a solution to that problem.    Ignited Literacy is a program that is designed to give you everything you need for your language arts program all in one place. It expands over four different grade levels and is being used successfully in over 600 classrooms across Canada.    Ignited Literacy gives you your time back, but I get asked all the time, “Is Ignited Literacy right for me?”    Are you the type of teacher that is going to benefit from a done-for-you plan that will help you implement reading, writing, oral language, and media instruction in your classroom? I have five questions for you to help

How confident are you in your language program?   Whether you’re super confident or there are some things you want to change, chances are you’re making some mistakes.   In this episode, I’m sharing five mistakes that you might be making during your language instruction.    These are really common and easy to fix, so don’t worry!   I’m covering what these mistakes are and giving you some tips and strategies on how to do things differently.   We’re also talking about things like tying reading and writing together, prioritizing guided reading, and how to get the most out of your allotted literacy time.    If you want to revise your language program but aren’t sure where to start, this episode is perfect for you.    I would love to connect on Facebook or Instagram! Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/192Remember to Subscribe for more insights on how to navigate the complexities of teaching with efficiency and impact. Share your experiences and strategies in the comments to join the conversation with fe

What should you do with your struggling readers during guided reading?   This is something that can be pretty daunting, especially if you’re in a junior classroom and you have a huge range of abilities in your class.    It’s important to remember that you will have different types of students in your classroom, and your strategy for supporting those students is going to look different depending on their academic profile.   In this episode, I am talking about three different types of learners who may be working significantly below grade level in your classroom and how to best support them in a guided reading lesson.   Different students need different types of support, and that’s okay! It doesn’t have to mean a lot of extra work for you. It just means you need to be familiar with those students and what they need.    Once you have your strategy figured out, guided reading lessons will be no problem at all. That’s why I am helping you get it figured out in this episode!    If you need a strategy to help your st

Do you need help with your guided reading sessions?    If so, I am excited to be sharing a complete plan for you to schedule your guided reading time in your junior classroom.    In this episode, I am teaching you how to set up your guided reading, and I am dispelling some myths about how to structure your guided reading time, especially as it pertains to junior grade levels.    I know that not all of your students are at the same level, and you need a schedule that can adapt to that. Guided reading should be a tool for you to use to assess your students’ progress, so let’s make that easier for you!    We’ll talk about what guided reading is, what its purpose is, and how to make it work for your students of all different levels.    If you could use some help getting your guided reading time set up, I’ve got you covered in this episode.    I would love to connect on Facebook or Instagram!   Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/190Remember to Subscribe for more insights on how to navigate the complexit

Do you have your schedule ready to go for the fall?    If you’re anything like me, you’re probably already thinking about what your schedule is going to look like.    If you’re lucky enough to have already been given your schedule by your principal, I have some tools to help you figure out what each of your periods is going to look like.   In this episode, I am walking you through the process that I follow to plan out the subjects in my schedule according to the time requirements that we have for each subject.    By the end of this episode, you will know how to plan out your week to make sure that you are fitting everything into your teaching schedule.    If you want to learn how to get your schedule set up quickly and easily, tune in to this episode.    I would love to connect on Facebook or Instagram!   Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/189Remember to Subscribe for more insights on how to navigate the complexities of teaching with efficiency and impact. Share your experiences and strategies in t

Have you ever wanted to meet the team behind Madly Learning?   You get to in this episode! I have some of my amazing team members joining me to talk about all things teamwork and teaching. You will get to hear things like what their roles are on the team, what they’ve learned during the pandemic, and some of their favorite things about teaching.    Madison is part of the content team, and she helps us get everything done. She has taught in a bunch of different grades since the beginning of her teaching career.    Margaret helps us with all things tech. If you’ve ever sent us an email or noticed a broken link on our website, Margaret was probably working her magic behind the scenes. She keeps us organized.   Lisa is on our content team, and she writes some of our lesson plans. You might have seen some of her work! She taught for 30 years, mostly in junior grades, and she has done it all.    Katrina helps us out with our social media. You might have seen some of her posts in the Madly Learning Facebook group. 

Have you ever found the perfect resource, only to realize that the jargon won’t work in your Canadian classroom?    Being a Canadian teacher can be kind of a struggle because so many resources are geared towards U.S. classrooms!    Nine years ago, there was a lack of Canadian teacher voices online, and that's when I started my blog, Madly Learning. Fast forward nine years and Madly Learning has grown to something that I am so proud of. The community that has developed around Madly Learning is the most amazing community out there. Thank you for that!   In the spirit of that, I am talking about what makes Canadian teachers different from other teachers you see online in this episode.   I also have something super exciting that I want to announce to you, so stick around until the end of the episode for that!   I would love to connect on Facebook or Instagram!   Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/187Remember to Subscribe for more insights on how to navigate the complexities of teaching with effici

Do you spend hours trying to come up with science lessons that are engaging and not boring? Do you end up just using worksheets because you don’t know what else to do?   In this episode, I am showing you how you can use inquiry-based learning and universal design in your science lessons. By the end of this episode, you’re going to have a whole bunch of ideas for lessons that go beyond basic read and respond worksheets.    Believe me when I say that you can have a fun, engaging, rigorous science program that is easy to plan, prep, and run. Inquiry-based learning is great because it is easy for the teacher and works for all students regardless of skill or ability.    Sound too good to be true? Trust me, it’s not. You just need to know where to start, and I’ve got you covered.    If you feel uninspired or lost and you’re not sure where to start when it comes to science lessons, tune in and take lots of notes!   I would love to connect on Facebook or Instagram!   Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/186R

I know we’re all looking forward to the end of the school year, but are you setting yourself up for success for when you come back in the fall?    In this episode, we are talking about some of the best ways that you can close down your classroom at the end of the school year.   I think that June is the perfect time to start planning and prepping to close down your classroom in a way that sets you up for success when it is back-to-school season, and I promise that if you do some of the things that I recommend in the episode, you will thank yourself in August and September!   From how you store items to getting new supplies and setting up your classroom, there are so many ways that you can get prepared and have your students help you!   Tune in before your school year is over, so you can avoid back-to-school season chaos!   I would love to connect on Facebook or Instagram!   Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/185Remember to Subscribe for more insights on how to navigate the complexities of teaching w

What have you learned about yourself over the last year?   It’s been an incredibly challenging year for most of us, to say the least!   In this episode, I am reflecting on my last year of teaching and sharing my thoughts on it.   Around this time last year, I decided I was in need of a change, and I reduced my teaching contract to about three days a week.    I like to change things up and get a bit uncomfortable because I find that I can get a little too complacent over time and fall into habits that aren’t always the best for me or my students. Can you relate?   I am excited to say that it is time for me to change things up again! I am sharing what’s next for me so you can experience it in real-time with me, but before I start this next chapter, I also want to take some time to reflect on the last one, so I invite you to join me.    Listen in and take a moment to reflect on the last 365 days of teaching with me!   I would love to connect on Facebook or Instagram!   Show notes available at www.madlylearning.c

Do you get stressed about writing report cards? Do you wish that it didn’t take so long to do?   In today’s episode, we are talking about how you can prepare yourself to write your report cards by developing a comment bank.    We are also covering how to use this bank to write personalized comments for your students that reflect them individually and systematizing this process so that you don’t have to spend so much time and energy on your report cards.    I know that this process can be time-consuming if you don’t have a solid process down, so the purpose of this episode is to help you simplify your process.   Remember, expectations for writing report card comments vary from school board to school board, school to school, or principal to principal, so think about how this applies to your specific circumstances as you listen to this episode!    I would love to connect on Facebook or Instagram!   Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/183Remember to Subscribe for more insights on how to navigate the com

If you don’t love IEPs, that’s okay. I don’t either!   Luckily, I am talking to someone who does in this episode!   Today’s guest, Stephanie DeLussey, is talking all about teaching students with special and complex educational needs.    She is an absolute pro at all things IEP, so she is sharing some of her best tips and resources for those of us who find them to be a bit more challenging.    Stephanie is a dual-certified special education teacher, Master IEP Coach®, children's book author, and teacher mentor. She has a passion for creating engaging, adapted resources for teachers and students with special needs, and is a self-proclaimed #datanerd. You can connect with her at Mrs. D's Corner and The Intentional IEP.   Stephanie is also a huge mental health advocate, sharing her experiences and struggles to let others know that you can survive the dark seasons and thrive in life and teaching with a mental illness.   If you hate writing IEPs or struggle to work with them, Stephanie is here to help us

Are you looking for a new teaching position? Do you need to brush up on your interview skills?   Lucky for you, I am diving into the topic of interviewing in this episode.   Mostly, I am sharing with you how I recommend prepping and applying to a new position. This is something that I have done enough times, and I feel like I have really refined my process.    I also interview candidates for Madly Learning, so I am able to give the interviewer’s perspective as well which I think you will find to be very beneficial.   Whether you are looking for a change, you’ve been forced to find a new position,  or you’re looking for your first teaching job, I want to give you my specific tips and tricks to prepare for that interview so that you can knock their socks off and get offered the job you really want.    I assure you, you will feel more prepared to land your dream teaching job after listening in to this episode.   I would love to connect on Facebook or Instagram! Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/181R

Are you looking for new ways to build connections and boost the confidence of your students?    In this episode, we are talking all about morning meetings and closing circles.    If you have no idea what I’m talking about, you're in for a treat.    My friend Monica Dunbar recently wrote a book all about how to start implementing them in your classroom to increase student engagement and create a positive learning community, so she’s joining us to tell us all about it!   She breaks all of this down, makes it really practical, and gives you easy to implement activities so that you too can have fantastic, well-organized morning meetings and closing circles.   Monica is an enthusiastic educator with a passion for making connections with her students. Her love of education has led her to teach in the Canadian Arctic; creating educational materials for teachers around the world; and sharing her opinions, insights, and experiences on her blog at www.iheartgrade3.com. When she’s not in the classroom, Monica enjoy

Can I tell you a secret? In my junior classroom, I don't want a word wall.   I don't want to take up all the space that a word wall requires when there are so many things I could be putting up there.   However, there are definitely still uses for subject-specific word walls, so we are going to talk about what those might look like and how you can make word walls more appropriate for a junior classroom.    In this episode, I’ll give you some ideas for different types of word walls, and how you can make them more accessible to your students.    I would love to connect on Facebook or Instagram!   Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/179Remember to Subscribe for more insights on how to navigate the complexities of teaching with efficiency and impact. Share your experiences and strategies in the comments to join the conversation with fellow educators.To find our highly effective, time-saving resources Checkout our Madly Learning Store at www.madlylearning.com/storeCheckout our Teachers Pay Teac

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 students in learning differently based on their strengths and needs as learners? Were your tasks open-ended and allowed for the widest variety of students in your class to access the learning?    I am going to go through all of these questions in this episode and give you some ideas on how you can have more inquiry-based pedagogy in your classroom if you aren’t able to answer all of these questions with confidence!   I would love to connect on Facebook or Instagram!   Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/178Remember to Subscribe for more insights on how to navigate the complexities of teaching with efficiency and impact. Share

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 episode, I am talking all about how you can assess inquiry effectively without doubling or tripling your workload.   I am going over the ideas, tips and tricks that I recommend using for assessing inquiry in your classroom, and I think you are going to get a lot of value out of them.   If you are ready to release the overwhelm and start assessing inquiry more effectively, tune in!   I would love to connect on Facebook or Instagram!   Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/177Remember to Subscribe for more insights on how to navigate the complexities of teaching with efficiency and impact. Share your experiences and strategies

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 including a variety of activities is important for students, where and how to define your focus, how to decide when you will add these lessons into the curriculum and more.   After listening to this episode, you will have a better understanding of how to effectively and creatively combine curriculum expectations and inquiry units for your students!   If this is something you want to try, this episode is an awesome place to get started, so tune in!   I would love to connect on Facebook or Instagram! Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/176Remember to Subscribe for more insights on how to navigate the complexities of teaching with

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 episode.   We cover where to start if you’re totally new to coding, how to explain coding in basic vocabulary, why you don’t need to be an expert in coding to teach it and more.   After listening to this episode, you will have a whole new level of confidence because you will be more prepared to take complicated coding language and make a practical lesson for your students.   Tune in for helpful advice and tips from Dena!   I would love to connect on Facebook or Instagram!   Show notes available at www.madlylearning.com/175  Remember to Subscribe for more insights on how to navigate the complexities of teaching with efficiency and im