SUSAN BARBER I remember when ChatGPT broke on TikTok in late 2022 and feared how this would play out in classrooms. My concerns were validated when over 50 students suddenly used the work “evocative” in their first online essays in January of 2023. Since then, AI has continued to evolve, students have become adept at … Continue Reading

I quit tracking my books on GoodReads a couple of years ago because it became cumbersome and took joy out of my reading life. Instead, I’ve been compiling an end of the year reading list primarily recalled through pictures on my phone. I’m sure I’ve missed a few but this is most of what I … Continue Reading

Teaching older novels has become quite the intimidating thing. After all, last November, The Atlantic declared that even elite college students aren’t reading, and if those kids can’t read whole novels, what hope is there for high school English teachers?  I have found a way to teach an 18th-century novel without losing my students to … Continue Reading

Apologies for any redundancy from previous posts, but one of the most common worries, concerns, and fears of new teachers (I serve as my school’s lead new teacher mentor) and from participants in my summer Lit and Lang APSIs is managing essay grading: how can I grade all of these essays, provide feedback, and still … Continue Reading

NCTE: the English teacher’s Disneyworld. Truly. My non-teaching friends are always amazed that 8,000 teachers of English gather yearly to discuss practices, learn from each other, and be inspired, but this happens yearly the weekend prior to Thanksgiving. After sitting out last year, I was eager to return and was fortunate enough to have a … Continue Reading

“that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

The dark arts that can conspire against a teacher typically manifest for me when the clocks are changing.  I start the year hyper-focused on knowing every student’s name by the second day because I want them to know that I genuinely care about them as individuals. I’ve set it up so that each day brings … Continue Reading

Maybe it is all just clickbait, luring us into a paranoia for an impending doom. In the past few months, The Atlantic has published America is Sliding Toward Illiteracy and The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books. The New York Times has its own doomsday submission with 12th Grade Reading Skills Hit a New … Continue Reading

To kick off this series on reading, we asked fellow teachers what they’re reading and how they’re reading. Here’s what they had to say: Leland Bene Valhalla High School El Cajon, California 1. What are the last three books you finished? The last three books I read were The Handmaid’s Tale (Maragret Atwood), Norwegian Wood … Continue Reading

We’re one of two months into the school year (depending on where you live), and the ideas from this summer’s APSI (if you were able to attend one) are jumbled together, the enthusiasm of a new year has melted into a stack of essays, and reality has set in for new AP English teachers (and … Continue Reading