Candace Fleming is an author of many fiction and nonfiction books for children and young adults. Among other things, Melissa and Candace talk about the research process, the power of nonfiction and how teachers can help students get more specific in their research.

Jane Reynolds, sister of author/illustrator Peter H. Reynolds, chats about her work in helping teachers tap into their creativity so they can model it for their students. Her teacher education work with her brothers, Peter and Paul, is revolutionary including their soon to be Teacher Learning and Creativity Center in Dedham, MA.

In this minisode, Melissa talks about the importance of read alouds and silent reading time. She shares some reading successes in her classroom and encourages teachers to reflect on how far their students have come.

In this episode, Melissa chats with Heather Leonard, a curriculum coordinator, and Erin Burchill, a K-8 Humanities coordinator. They share their strong focus on collaboration in order to eliminate the barriers that stop teachers from being able to implement the curriculum successfully.

In this Teacher As Filmmaker minisode, Melissa shares screenwriter/director David Lynch's philosophy on catching ideas for writing.

Are you looking for a 3rd-5th grade read aloud that will set your students' imaginations on fire? Malamander is a humorous, well written fantasy/science fiction story with a mystery at its core. Students love it.

In this episode, Melissa chats with Eric Gibbs, President of Ouriginal, a plagiarism software for K-12 and higher education. Eric shares how teachers can use the software as part of the writing process to help students learn how to create original work.

In this episode, Jamie Benning shares with educators his process in creating documentaries. Jamie shares about how he researches, curates film and interviews, and edits to create his Filmumentaries.

In this episode, Michael McLaughlin and Leeann Blais, educators at Austin Prep in Reading, MA collaborate to create a top ten list of tech tools for student collaboration. Michael is the head of middle school and Leeann is a 6th and 7th grade English teacher.

In this episode, I chat with Eva, a 15 year old high school sophomore who loves to write. Eva provides great insight for teachers about what students really hope for when learning how to be better writers. Eva shares what inspires her, as well as her writing process. She is able to publish her work, collaborate with other young authors, and get feedback with a site called Wattpad.

In this episode, I zoom in on research and the writing process with author and Washington Post writer, Geoff Edgers. Geoff stresses the importance of in depth research and plenty of time to write and revise.

Melissa’s guest this week is her sister-in-law Dr. Bethany Milner. They talk about supporting students for success.

Phaedra talks about the purpose of writing and finding what is essential.

Nancy shares how punk rock helps her in her teaching practice.

Coding done well is computational thinking.

Kristy Sumner shares about her work as a paranormal investigator and her focus on research and sharing stories.