What's your opinion on interactive notebooks or journals? Personally, I love using them with my upper grades students. They're a great way to teach a skill by encouraging students to come up with their own examples. Plus, students love cutting and gluing. I guide my students during the setup of their own notebooks by showing them mine first. Visuals are a great way to offer additional support, especially if you work with emergent bilinguals. I find that using the projector and Smartboard to show my students where to cut and glue is the most ... Read More
Small Groups by Genre
How do you teach your students to become proactive readers? A few years ago I started focusing on teaching my students how to read a text based on its genre, and it has made such a difference! Wait. By genre? What does this mean? It means my students know exactly what elements (things) to look for when they pick up a text and identify its genre. Let me give you an example. Here's an anchor chart that displays the important elements of fiction. Those elements are: characters, setting, problem, solution, theme, and summary. Typically ... Read More
One Year Old Toddler Gift Guide
Hello and welcome back! I know it's been a while since I last posted. I'm so excited to share my gift guide to help you shop for the little one in your life! These are all gifts I have requested, have used or are currently using with my one-year old daughter. Don't worry! I made sure to include gifts that can be enjoyed by both, girls AND boys. I also included a variety of gifts that are budget-friendly. If you follow me on Instagram, you know that my husband loves to play the ukulele. He's also really good at playing the drums. It's safe to ... Read More
Our (in)Fertility Journey
TRIGGER WARNING: Infertility, Pregnancy Announcement Welcome to my most personal post to date. I was a bit nervous to share our experience on such a public platform, but my fears were quickly overcome by the thought that someone out there might come across this post and not feel alone. Did you know that 10-15% of couples in the US have difficulty getting pregnant or staying pregnant? That is why I decided to post this. For you. For us. IN THE BEGINNING In the beginning, my husband and I agreed that children weren't something that we really ... Read More
El Gift Guide 2020
I've been working hard behind the scenes to bring you this gift guide I've decided to name El Gift Guide 2020! You'll soon start to notice that many of these gift ideas were created by members of the Latinx community. Did you know that Latinxs are the fastest-growing demographic among all US entrepreneurs? ¡Arriba mi gente! Let me stop rambling because I know why you're really here... But before I jump right in, here's the gift guide again (in case you need a visual reminder): 1 First on the list is Gran Cocina Latina, $45 by Maricel ... Read More