…changing the world, one reader at a time.
What is Ms. Fitz reading? Here’s the view from March 3! February is one of the most difficult months in teaching, in my opinion. This February has been especially weird, with zero snow days, wild weather, and lots of extra obligations. If I’m being honest, I’m kind of surprised I read this many books. Small […]
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Isn’t it just the best when a book turns out to be a happy surprise? I read a lot of books, but every so often one comes along that really surprises me. Here are four wonderfully surprising books that I’ve read recently, if you’d like to see. Emmy in the Key of Code, by Aimee […]
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The average Supplemental Nutrition Benefit Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit per meal in the US is $1.86 (source). For the final experiment in our How Can We Help Solve the Hunger Crisis? Quest, we did an experiment to find out what its like to prepare a nutritious, delicious meal for our “Quest family” on that budget. […]
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Finding windows and mirrors in your reading can be really tricky if you’re still developing and strengthening your empathy muscles. And if you’re in middle school, when your development is screaming at you to focus on other things. Sixth grade readers put together this list of sentence starters today, to help give readers a push […]
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All of our 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders have been learning about the amazing work of Vashti Harrison in preparation for her visit through the Virginia Festival of the Book next month. They’ve been talking about her nonstop, and we’ve been studying her work in many of my classes. And last week, in a meeting about […]
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After posting Finding our Color Words Using Honeysmoke last week, readers asked me to share a list of the picture books that we used and loved for our skin tone picture book walk. I pulled these books thoughtfully and with my human skin tone palettes in hand, hoping to include as many shades as possible. […]
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Since our schoolwide conversation about Black History Month, the kids have been curious and open about discussing race and differences. Here’s a lesson, inspired by middle schoolers, that I shared with my K-4 students last week, if you’d like to see. Last week, I was talking to my middle schoolers about what they […]
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Insta Review gives you a new book recommendation in under a minute. Go ahead, time it! View this post on Instagram The jury is still out on Solo. Son of hyperbolically washed up and struggling “rock god” Rutherford Morrison, Blade Morrison has been raised in the lap of luxury, with everything he could ever want; […]
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How do you best prepare your students for discussions about race, ability, and other human differences in your classroom? The conversations in the library since our community Black History Month discussion have really been remarkable. I’ve been so impressed with the way that students have opened up and asked questions out loud that they’ve previously […]
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Welcome to Once Upon a Tech, the podcast where literacy and technology collide. Once Upon a Tech: The Literacy Adventures of Ms. Fitz and Miss-Bit is finally here! It has been a labor of love, and our first podcast episode is finally LIVE! 🥳🎉 Made with lots of joy (and mistakes) by me and my […]
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