Today we are joined by Kara Corridan, Executive Editor of Storyworks Jr. Check out Kara's last post, on what's exciting at Storyworks Jr., here.
How can we bring amazing teachers together to share their best ideas?
This was our challenge as creators of Storyworks and Storyworks Jr., our award-winning ELA magazines. We basked in the love our teachers expressed for this resource. We were amazed by the genius ideas they sent us, and by our experiences watching them on school visits.
But we wanted them to be able to showcase their ideas more easily—and, while we were at it, inspire teachers who don’t subscribe to our magazines to try them, too. What is the best way to create a community to bring together all of these educators?
Then it hit us: We’d launch a Storyworks Ideabook. This blog is packed with our teachers’ phenomenal ideas and allows us to share big news, our own tips and behind-the-scenes info too. It’s been a great way to connect and collaborate with our teachers, but we want to go bigger, and I’m hoping that’s where you come in.
Our posts reinforce our mission: to make your teaching lives easier and more joyful. The ideas are easy to replicate, and applicable to stories beyond the ones featured in the post. This way, teachers are excited to try them regardless of whether they use our resources.
A perfect Ideabook example comes from our advisor Beth Orticelli of Illinois, who regularly shares what we’ve branded Genius Teaching Ideas. In her Text Features Surgery, students “operate” on their issues by cutting out stories’ text features. Her photos tell the story, showing how engaged her students were, and her straightforward instructions make it easy to adapt. (The post blew up on social media, getting more than 1,400 Likes and nearly 900 shares on Facebook!)
Are you ready to be an Ideabook teacher? Again, even if you’re not a Storyworks or Storyworks Jr. subscriber, you’ll find irresistible lessons that’ll help you do your job joyfully. I hope you’ll bookmark the site—or better yet, subscribe to our e-newsletter and have amazing grade 2-6 teaching ideas delivered to your inbox.
And if you’ve got your own genius teaching idea, let us know! Hearing from our teachers is always the highlight of our day (sometimes our month). Email us at storyworksideabook@scholastic.com.
