College Ready

Sharing strategies for student success, college readiness and academic coaching

Category Archives: Writing


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Maya Angelou, the World’s Teacher, Dies at 86

Saying goodbye to one of your teachers is not an easy thing to do. You don’t always meet a teacher in a classroom. Sometimes, you meet a teacher in a book. That was Dr. Angelou. A teacher to anyone who opened one of her books and read even a page of her beautiful words. The world’s teacher. 

Rest in peace Maya Angelou. Thank you for your amazing legacy of words & action, for leading the way, & for sharing w/ us your powerful philosophy that, “when you know better, you do better.” 

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Dr Angelou on Doing What You Love: “You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.” 

On Stories: “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” 

On Success: “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” 

On Survival: ““My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” 

 


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Writer’s Say: Just Write. Pick up a Pen and Write.

Author of Writing Down the Bones, writing guru, Natalie Goldberg, has this to say on how to be a writer:

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10 Writing Tips

Here’s a great Writing Tips chart to share with your students. I like that it emphasizes adding your own style (Step 5) and enjoying your writing (Step 10). If you don’t say it with style, and you don’t enjoy writing it, chances are, folks won’t enjoy reading it.

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Hemingway on the Writing Life

Writing, at its best, is a lonely life.~~Ernest Hemingway.

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 What do you think–does writing have to be a solitary pursuit? 

 


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How to be a Scholar. 6 Steps to Encourage Critical Thinking

As we get to the end of the semester and school year, we are expecting our students to demonstrate higher order thinking skills, or Critical Thinking. I like this infographic from Learning Commons at the University of British Columbia.

Critical Thinking Toolkit

Thanks to its simple flow chart style, students can use it to clearly reflect on their own thinking. Students need to constantly question their own process, and those of others. They need to ask questions about the text they read, test possibilities, and allow for new discoveries.

Higher order thinking skills (HOTS) push our students beyond simple responses and elevate them to scholars and critics in their own right. Part of what’s vital in education is for students to learn to trust their own voice, while still questioning their thinking. What strategies do you use in your classroom to encourage critical thinking?

 

Writer’s Say Saturday

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Writer's Say Saturday

Great advice from Hunter Thompson


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Find Your Happy Today

My happy is:

In the classroom, connecting with students. Forget About What Everyone Else Thinks And Says

The “Aha Moments” when that student finally puts it all together.

The struggle that finally leads to success.

A little creek with some big rocks for sitting on and thinking.

The path, the journey, and sometimes the destination.

A cup of coffee with a friend.

Pages of a book, sometimes filled with notes I’ve made.

Smiles of children that are my heart beating outside of my body.

Writing just one word that makes a picture.

Finding beauty along the way.

What’s your happy?

If it makes you happy, go for it.xo~Lisa

“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”  -Aristotle

“The purpose of our lives is to be happy.” Dalai Lama

 

Any little thought will do. Peter Pan

 

 


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Mavericks, Outsiders & Rebels. Wise Words on Writing

Getting to the “heart” of writing. Here’s why outsiders, rebels and mavericks make the best characters. Some advice from writer Isabel Allende, who knows a thing or two about good writing:

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No Net Around the Future. Simple Ways to Help Students Soar to Their Potential

Students Need the Power of Belief to Soar to Their Potential

Teachers. It’s hard. We ask a lot of you. We ask you to keep getting up in the morning and showing up in that classroom and bringing your A Game.

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We ask you to notice the students who need the extra help and notice the students who need the extra challenge. And to do it with a smile and a magical “Mary Poppins” like presence in a classroom. Do all that but do it with fairly little community support and for not that much financial compensation, either. But do it all the same

because

Every

Student

Needs a Hero.

Keep helping our students realize that their potential is unlimited. They can soar and achieve any dream as long as they have someone in their lives that supports them. Our goal at College Ready is simply to let all students know, regardless of socio-economic background, there’s no net around their future.

They can soar to unlimited heights.


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Reading to Write

This is what I always tell my students: to be a better, writer–read!