Welcome to the Shurley English Blog! For the past thirty-four years, our mission at Shurley Instructional Materials has been simple. We do all we can to help teachers and students experience grammar and writing success. With that goal in mind, we wanted to create a space where our team of educators could share tips, tricks, and techniques to ignite learning. It’s all about educators helping educators on the Shurley English Blog. We invite you to join the conversation!

September 03, 2019

Curriculum Toolbox: from hodgepodge to cohesive

September 03, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

During my undergraduate days, I was headlong into all of my pre-teaching training courses. I truly enjoyed all of them. But, as I neared my junior and senior years of college, I began to get more into the philosophies of teaching. It seems that, at that time, the prevalent theories of teaching led my professors to refuse to tout the use of specific curriculum. That was both good and bad. It was good because it forced me to think along the lines that I did not need to depend on current published curriculum to be able to teach well. It was bad, however, because it generated the incorporation of a hodgepodge type of homemade curriculum that was left strictly up to me to develop and teach—risky, to say the least.

After I landed my first teaching gig, I knew I was in trouble because the school district had a mandated curriculum, which is what I was told would probably happen. We were taught in college to “just close your door and teach the way you know is right.” Well, that was risky, too, because my lack of experience in the classroom made it nearly impossible to know “what was right.” So, I proceeded with what I thought was right while still trying to adhere to the required curriculum. What I discovered unsettled me.

August 29, 2019

Writing Toolbox: Composing Better Sentences

August 29, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

Whether you teach language arts in the school classroom or your home classroom, you have to teach your kids how to write, right? To be clear, I don’t mean the mechanical parts of writing: holding the pencil correctly, positioning the notebook paper properly, and so on. I mean the actual generation of topics that kids know about and want to write about. I mean the composition of clear, concise sentences that convey what the writer is thinking. It would be nice if kids were natural writers and could pluck ideas (and the words needed to express those ideas) out of their brains at the first sign of a prompt, but most of the time, this is not the case.

What kid writers need is good modeling.

August 27, 2019

Shurley English 101: Pushing beyond your comfort zone

August 27, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

Just like many of you, teachers across the United States are experiencing lots of change during this time of year like switching classrooms or schools, learning new curricula, and welcoming a new class of students. Changes like these push us outside of our comfort zones.

I used to look at veteran teachers and thought they had less planning and preparing to do because they could use lessons from their previous years. I’d dream of the day when I could relax at the beginning of the year and coast through my lessons like they were, or so it seemed. For some reason, I believed I could avoid the inevitable changes in our field; I was proven wrong when I changed grade levels for the first three years of my teaching career. I also learned that those veteran teachers still worked just as hard as the new teachers. What an interesting welcome to the world of education. I learned quickly that change is the one thing that always remains consistent.

August 23, 2019

Having Fun with Analogies

August 23, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

An analogy is a way of thinking about how pairs of words are related. It’s a special kind of word puzzle that lets a student have fun and exercises their brain at the same time! If you need a language arts activity to help keep your students on their toes, teach them how to create analogy puzzles! They can be done at any time, and kids seem to always enjoy the challenge.

August 20, 2019

Classroom Discipline Best Practices

August 20, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

Discipline is one of the most pressing issues in our schools today, and in order for learning to take place, teachers must control and minimize time off task due to discipline problems. Choosing an effective approach and using it correctly can make a big difference in whether a child feels safe or threatened and whether a child learns more appropriate behaviors or not once the discipline has been administered.

Instead of waiting until bad behavior rears its ugly head, it is best practice for teachers to

August 15, 2019

Shurley English 101: Teaching with Confidence

August 15, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

So, you have purchased your Shurley curriculum, you open the book or access your digital teacher’s manual…and then it hits you! “What’s all this? How am I going to cover all of it? Can I even do it?” If you have had these or similar feelings, don’t panic. It’s going to be all right.

My post today is about confidence. Yes! You can teach with confidence, especially if you are just embarking upon your first journey with Shurley English. I realize that the sheer volume of information about English that we teach might be enough to send you to the edge. But, pull back. Breathe. Help is on the way.

August 13, 2019

The Art of Self-Care for Teachers: Saying "No."

August 13, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

Last week, we discussed how practicing the art of self-care IS your duty. Learning how to set boundaries at home and work helps you take care of YOU so you can take care of others. One valuable way to break your pattern of self-sacrifice is by learning how to gracefully say, “No.”

When you’re a chronic giver or helper, it’s really hard to tell people, “No.” Most of us don’t like to disappoint people. We avoid conflict when possible, and many people simply believe that taking care of one’s self is just plain selfish. These days, more and more people have started shifting their beliefs around self-care; personal health and well-being have become a part of people’s lives in the 21st Century. People are empowered when they can say, “No” to a request that is not absolutely necessary.

Please be aware of this important point:

August 06, 2019

The Art of Self-Care for Teachers

August 06, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

Are you familiar with the frog in boiling water metaphor? (Of course, do not attempt this at home!)

Imagine a pot of cold water sitting on the burner of a stove. A frog is peacefully swimming in it. The heat is turned on, and the water starts warming up. The frog finds this pleasant and keeps swimming. The temperature keeps rising, though. Now, the water is a little more than what the frog enjoys; it becomes a bit tired, but it doesn’t panic. As the water continues to heat up, the frog finds it very uncomfortable, and

August 01, 2019

The goal of Shurley English

August 01, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

It’s that time of year again, and most teachers are trying their best to enjoy their final days of summer break. It’s hard to believe that some schools have already started professional development opportunities for their staff members. Before you know it, your own classroom will be filled with a new group of young learners.

Some teachers are looking forward to teaching a new curriculum this year. Even though that can be exciting and motivating, it can also cause feelings of nervousness. Some teachers have a curriculum in place with nothing new to add. For these teachers, feelings of confidence about the content are more likely to occur. Either way, it’s helpful to be reminded of curriculum goals and to be re-motivated to teach certain subjects.

If Shurley English training is not on your professional development schedule this year, I’m here to remind you of your goal when you teach the curriculum…