Every once in awhile, I remember that I need to use the stuff I learned when I was in New York City last November at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) conference. With the busy-ness of life, it’s all too easy to slip back into zoom-mode and plow on ’til June.

I am fortunate, though, to be teaching 7th grade for the first time. Yes, I have colleagues who pass their wisdom my way and I do have an original thought every now and then, but there were things I learned at NCTE that are helping me piece together this 7th grade puzzle, too.

For example, there’s thinkfinity.org. It was a gimmick that guided me toward it; “Watch a 15 minute overview of thinkfinity.org and you get a free t-shirt.” I do have enough t-shirts, but this one had a cool dinosaur on it, so….

I’m teaching The Giver for the first time. I type in the name of the book in the search line at thinkfinity.org and the first two ideas are wonderful. I read them over again to make sure they’re really what I want and print them. The assignments are engaging the students in thoughtful reflection of this juicy novel.

The wheel must have taken a long time to invent…I’m not about re-inventing it. I’m about thought-provoking assignments and about saving time…to correct papers, most likely.