College Ready

Sharing strategies for student success, college readiness and academic coaching

Tag Archives: writing


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Make a wish, Spread your wings, and Fly

“The moment you doubt whether you can fly you cease forever to do it.”

This advice is from J.M Barrie’s Peter Pan…and it works for all of us. Never stop believing in your goal. Or, if you notice that you do stop believing…it’s probably time to find the next goal or chapter in your life.

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Because you? You were meant to FLY!

Happy Tuesday, Happy Summer…happy life!

Leave a comment to let us know your summer wishes. Feel free to share this post! ❤

xo~Lisa

ps: I took this photo and I’m pretty happy with the way it all turned out. 🙂

Photo by @english_musings


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15 Things to Give Up to Get Happy!

Here are “15 Things to Give Up” to Get Happy.

This is good advice all year long, but especially at holiday time and as we look towards the new year.

You have the power to flip this script! It might read something like THIS:

-Believe in yourself.
-Think Positive
-Embrace Failure
-Build healthy relationships
-Engage in meaningful conversation
-Speak highly of yourself and others
-Live in Joy
-Eat to fuel your body
-Get up and go
-Positive Self talk
-One step at a time
-Go after Success
-Live in Simplicity
-Be Authentic
-Become comfortable putting yourself FIRST…or at least work up to putting yourself on the list. Take care of you!

When we give up the things holding us down, we make room for more goodness and opportunity to enter our lives.

Drop us a note in the comments on which of these you are planning to give up in the New Year, or turn the phrase around (flip the script) and tell us what you WILL be doing in the days, weeks and months to come to live a healthy, happy life.

And as we approach the holiday season of light and love, we want to offer our appreciation and gratitude to our amazing tribe (that’s all of you–our readers–from all over the world) who make this community a better, brighter, and more vibrant place. THANK YOU.

All the best,

~~Lisa (aka, The Happy Teacher!)

Want to connect with us on facebook? Do that by clicking right here. If you’re on Pinterest, you can find us right here. Grazie!

www.collegereadycoach.com


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The Only Writing Advice You’ll Ever Need

The simple but true writing advice I give my students:

be-authentic[1].jpg

Truth! And this is true not just in writing, but in teaching, too. Let students see at least a little bit of the real you. Authentic connections lead to engaged, connected classrooms.

Happy Saturday, friends,

Lisa (aka The Happy Teacher)


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Writing Haiku in the Rain

On Wednesday, it rained in Northern California. This is something that hasn’t been happening very often. (See also: drought.) It was glorious & noteworthy.

And so, my frosh college comp students wrote haikus about the rain. Yes, it had to happen.

And it was good. To stop. To not rush. To listen. Feel. Connect. Discover. To Write. Together.

Here’s some of what they had to say. (All writing by English100 students, each space is a new writer):

RAIN~~

Rain is like wet peace

Cascading down my body
Piercing my very soul

Grey slippery drops
Renewing luscious hillsides
Quenching nature’s thirst

Joy Fills the Gray Sky
Dull Struggles are Dropped

Clouds filled with wet life
Sound of peace with sleep

The earth is renewed
Every time rain falls down
Water creates life.

Photo @ collegereadycoach.com by: lisalu22

~~~

Each line is a complete image in very few words. I compiled this one longer poem from various lines out of the students’ original work. Each one was lovely as a stand alone haiku, but putting it together like this connected writers’ ideas to a collaborative mosaic.

Do you teach poetry in your classes? If so, what do the students think? A few of mine were skeptical at first. They needed time to brainstorm, to think it out, and to really understand that there was no objective, and no assessment. If the haiku turned out well, great. If students weren’t happy with it, then they need not turn it in. Low risk and high reward, especially as students read their poems aloud. I hope you will take some time to notice the rain, or the snow, or whatever else is of interest in your part of the world. Make it noteworthy. Craft some poetry together. Share some writing. Make some connections.

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I happen to love the rain. Do you? I love the smell, the way the air feels. I love walking across campus in it. Here in California, we aren’t going to be making our way out of this devastating drought anytime soon, but at least we had a little sliver of silver lining on Wednesday.

Happy Friday,

Lisa (aka, The Happy Teacher)

Need a refresher course on Haiku? It’s a form of Japanese poetry made up of three lines. Lines are 5/7/5 syllables each. The first line consists of 5 syllables, the second line consists of 7 syllables, and the third line consists of 5 syllables. Haiku often focuses on nature. For more on how to write a haiku, click here.


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Questions are King of the Classroom

Questions are the sign of a healthy classroom. Encourage students to ask all sorts of questions, especially open-ended questions that require process, experimentation, and research. Let them see that the instructor doesn’t “own” all the knowledge or have all the answers. You will be creating a classroom culture of inquiry & critical thinking.


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Goodbye Summer. Hello Students.

I love you both. And I love teaching!

It’s a brand new school year. Get ready for:

A Fresh Start.
A new semester.

New Beginnings.
New Challenges.

And all the optimism, opportunity and rewards that come along with it. 

It’s my first day! Wish me luck! When do you go back to school? Are you excited? Ready? What do you like best about the first day? For me…it’s that sense of starting a brand new adventure. New students. New faces, New dreams. Being in a room filled with dreamers is a wonderful feeling.

Have a great start to a great year.

xo, Lisa (aka, The Happy Teacher)


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Super Soul Sunday: Advice on living a happy life.

Good advice for a successful day & a happy life. Especially for us English professor/writer-types and creative people of all kinds. We need poetry, and song, and art, and connection, in all its forms. It’s good for the soul. It’s even better for fostering creativity.

I try to incorporate a little of each every day. How about you?

goethe read a little

Make sure to take that little bit of time out to do some part of Goethe’s recipe for living a happy life.

Have a wonderful Sunday.

xo, Lisa (aka–The Happy Teacher)

 


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Wise Words: Speak the Truth. Even if Your Voice Shakes.

As educators, we are called on to do this often. We speak up–especially when it is for our students. Shaky voices and all!

speak truth even voice shakes


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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!

College Ready

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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It’s Our Anniversary!! One Year Old Today!

Happy Blogaversary!  It’s been exactly one year since I started College Ready Coach. What a year it has been! I’ve learned so much, and met so many great bloggers, writers, students and educators along the way! The one common denominator we all share: a passion for learning.

Gift in celebration

I could not have anticipated what the year would hold, but decided to take that leap, jump in and get started. It’s meant a lot of writing, amazing opportunities, more writing, and new adventures, as the message of College Ready has been shared & spread around the globe. Now, 12 months later, with over 6700 visitors from 93 countries, I am grateful, humbled, and excited to embrace the next step!

Thank you so much for making this blog a place for students, parents, and educators to have a conversation, share ideas, and support one another. We need opportunity, access, and mentors to make sure every student has a chance to be college ready. For more on helping first-generation college students succeed, check out this article.

Making smart college choices means not being buried in debt when you graduate. Here's why students are rejecting America's top college: ROI

I truly believe that “Education is the movement from darkness to light,” (Allan Bloom). Reach out to me if you have any questions, or need help shedding some light on the process of getting from high school to college.

I am happy to feature guest bloggers, especially international students , college freshmen, and parents of college students. Feel free to message me if you have ideas or suggestions.

Happy #Teachers: Changing the World in Three Easy Steps: education, confidence, hope equals #peace visiting collegereadycoach for more teaching inspiration

For more on why I started the blog, and the importance of being a mentor in a student’s life, you can read this post: 1 Easy Way to be a Hero.

To find out more about CollegeReadyCoach, check out our About page.

Many thanks~~~Lisa

aka, The Happy Teacher