College Ready

Sharing strategies for student success, college readiness and academic coaching

Tag Archives: learn


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

As promised, encore presentations of some of our most popular posts. This post “How to be a Scholar. 6 Steps to Encourage Critical Thinking.” is a reader’s favorite over on our Pinterest page, where it has been “repinned” many times. I like the visual appeal of the infographic and will once again use it this Fall in my Freshman Composition classes. The #1 most important skill for any college student in any discipline or major, is critical thinking.
Always Question! xo~Lisa, aka “The Happy Teacher” 🙂

Psst: Yep, we’re on Pinterest. We feature high quality, visually appealing content for teachers from K-12 to College, including free resources ready to print and use in the classroom. Check out our boards and if you do, leave a comment so we can say Hello!

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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 ToolkitThanks 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?

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27 Ways to Be an Effective Classroom Teacher in one Education Infographic

Try something new during these last few weeks of the school year. It can be like a dress rehearsal to see if you want to blend it into your “teacherly bag ‘o tricks” for next year. I like this education infographic from the amazing Mia Mac Meeken.

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88. Another Life Lesson #2

Wise Words on Things to Give Up–

To Inspire From Within

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Books, Bedtime and Beyond: Why Family Reading Rocks

Even MORE reasons to read to a child. Reading aloud “builds a child’s WANT to read.” Think your kiddo is too old for you to read to them at bedtime? Think again. Check out the difference in a child’s interest in reading between Kindergarten and Fourth Grade! What was the key difference? Parents stopped reading to kids.

By 12th grade-only 19% of kids asked said they were interested in reading! When you consider that higher levels of college readiness are linked to reading skills, I have just one word for that statistic: Noooooooo….but what can you do about it?

One thing our family started last summer was family reading time. We picked a classic-The Wind in the Willows-and each of us would read a few pages at a time. We read it together each night and enjoyed the simplicity of the words, the comfort of the timeless message and the beauty of the illustrations. Yes, even my Minecraft lovin’ middle school boy unplugged long enough to take part! He loved doing accents and really cracked up at Toad’s antics. So get silly, have fun, and share the joy of reading at any age!! What types of family reading do you do with your kids?

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This beautiful infographic was produced by usborneusa.com and Nancy Ann Wartman

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11 Ways to Do a Random Act of Kindness This Summer

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11 Ways to Do a Random Act of Kindness This Summer

OK, you got me!! There are only 10 items on the list. The 11th one is up to you! What ideas do you have for performing a Random Act of Kindness this summer? May I suggest “Read to a Child“? It is simple, costs nothing but a little bit of your time, and can make all the difference in the world.

But, hey, anything you do is gonna make you feel all warm & fuzzy inside…so, go for it…

Start a Kindness Chain…

Because once you start it…kindness ripples out like water in a pond, spreading farther and farther. And that’s 100% scientific fact. Yep, I swear!! Kindness is contagious!

So what’s YOUR #11?? Let’s add some ideas to this list. Add your suggestions here. Thanks! 🙂


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Always Learning

Day one. We begin.

I’m a gal from New Jersey, now located on the West Coast–teaching, raising a family, & living my dream.career passion

The theme for this blog is “Always Learning.” I’m a college English instructor and although it’s my name on the schedule where the instructor is listed, each day I learn from both my students, and my colleagues. Add in the wider academic community (ie, all of you!), via my Twitter PLN, Pinterest, teacher blogs on Tumblr, and well…the access to information, learning, and new ideas is endless. Family, friends and life are also all great teachers. I’m always learning and I love it!

For a while now, I’ve been determined to start a blog to both reflect on my own teaching, learning, writing, and reading, and to share content and ideas with others.To give back. To model the openness that is so vital in our profession. I’ve been doing this on other social media channels, and even blogging with my students, but I came late to setting up my teaching blog. (Ok, truth be told this blog has been in the planning stage for over a year! A year! Wow!) No more. Summer, sunshine and time off have given me the burst of creativity that I needed to envision and launch this new site. And here it is.

I’m passionate about student success, literacy, and educational equality. I believe in education to empower people of all ages and backgrounds,  and to save & change lives. To teach is to be a small part of this and that to me, is living my dream.  In my next post, I’ll explain how I named this blog…but here’s a hint. I’ve taught college English for 16 years in a student-centered classroom.

I’ll try to keep future posts short and sweet and end with something useful each time. Today, it’s this link to “15 Young Adult Books Every Adult Should Read.” I plan to read Feed next. How about you-have you read any of the books on this list? Which would you recommend?

Happy Summer. Happy Reading.

~Lisa