Teaching Middle School ELA
Welcome to the Teaching Middle School ELA Podcast, where we help English Language Arts teachers create dynamic, engaging lessons while balancing the everyday responsibilities of teaching middle school.
I’m Caitlin Mitchell, a longtime ELA educator and curriculum creator, and I know firsthand how challenging it can be to manage grading, planning, and student needs—while still trying to have a life outside the classroom. That’s why every Tuesday and Thursday, I bring you practical strategies, curriculum inspiration, and innovative teaching ideas to help you feel confident, prepared, and energized.
Whether you're looking to revamp your writing instruction, streamline your planning process, or engage even the most reluctant readers and writers, you’ll find actionable support here. You'll also hear real classroom stories, fresh lesson ideas, and occasional interviews with other passionate educators.
If you teach reading and writing to middle schoolers and want to stay inspired and up-to-date with best practices in ELA education, you’re in the right place. Tune in every week and let’s transform your teaching—together.
Episodes
557 episodes
Episode 409: Could Becoming a Happier Teacher Be as Easy as This?
In today's Teaching Middle School ELA podcast episode, The fastest way to make next year feel different isn’t a new binder or a prettier calendar. It’s a single belief you stop treating like a fact. As we hit the end-of-year home stretch, I wan...
Episode 408: Monday Mindset: Creating Evidence for Yourself
You can’t “think” your way into becoming a new version of yourself. You become them by collecting proof one small action at a time and that’s the Monday Mindset I’m bringing to you today. If you’ve been waiting for motivation, clarity, or the p...
Episode 407: What It Takes to Create the Teaching Life You Dream Of
In today's Teaching Middle School ELA podcast episode, I talked about how you can love teaching and still feel crushed by everything wrapped around it. We get real about the moment many middle school ELA teachers know too well: sitting in the c...
Episode 406: Step-by-Step Approach for Implementing "Genius Hour" in Middle School
In today's Teaching Middle School ELA podcast episode, I share Step-by-Step Approach for Implementing "Genius Hour" in Middle School. The last few weeks of school can feel like you’re holding your classroom together with tape and sheer willpowe...
Episode 405: Monday Mindset: Never Question the Decision
In today's Monday Mindset episode, Your toughest habits don’t break in big dramatic moments. They break in quiet negotiations you barely notice, the quick “just this once” you tell yourself when you’re tired, overwhelmed, or craving comfort. We...
Episode 404: Tips for Using Your Prep Period to Grade (Instead of Plan)
In today's Teaching Middle School Podcast Episode, your prep period is getting stolen and it’s not because you’re “bad at time management.” Between emails, copies, surprise student needs, and drive-by conversations, that one small window become...
Episode 403: The Feedback Framework That Cuts Grading Time in Half
In today's Teaching Middle School ELA podcast, We share a practical before-during-after feedback framework built from real teacher tips across our staff. Before grading, we require a structured self-assessment using a rubric and checklist, plus...
Episode 402: Monday Mindset: Margin for Magic
You can look fine on the outside and still feel alone on the inside and that gap can get painfully wide when you’re a teacher expected to carry everyone else. Today’s Monday Mindset is a short reset built around a simple truth: you’re no...
Episode 401: Graphic Group Essays: A Writing Assignment Your Students Will Actually Like
April makes it hard to keep essay writing rigorous without burying ourselves in grading. We use graphic group essays to help students practise claims, evidence, and justification through a visual, collaborative process that keeps writing engagi...
Episode 400: A Simple Hack for Helping Students Find the Main Idea in Informational Text
Struggling to get your students to actually find the main idea—without guessing or copying random sentences? You’re not alone.In today’s episode, we’re sharing a simple, classroom-tested hack that helps middle school stud...
Episode 399: Monday Mindset: The One Thing That Makes the End of the Year So Much Harder Than It Has to Be
Today's Monday Mindset, We challenge ourselves to teach for the “May us” by making choices now that reduce end-of-year stress and strengthen student skills. We unpack why readiness and motivation rarely show up first, and how holding the line o...
Episode 398: Why Students Don't Apply Grammar in Their Writing — And How to Fix It Part 2
Today's episode is Part 2 of Episode 397. Your students can label sentence types on a worksheet, crush the grammar game, and still hand in an essay packed with run-ons and fragments. That disconnect is not laziness. It is transfer, and ...
Episode 397: Why Your Grammar Lessons Keep Falling Flat (And the Fix That Actually Works) Part 1
If your grammar lessons feel like they’re going in one ear and out the other… You are not alone.In today’s Teaching Middle School ELA podcast episode, we’re breaking down why traditional grammar instruction just isn’t stickin...
Episode 396: Monday Mindset: What to Do When Everything Starts to Slip
In today's Monday Mindset, March and April can feel like the point where everything starts slipping at once. You’re running on fumes, your students are restless, and the pull of summer makes every small task feel bigger than it should. We’re ta...
BONUS: Silent Discussions—How to Get Every Student Thinking (Without Anyone Saying a Word)
In this bonus episode, we’re joined by our very own EB Membership Manager, Genevieve, to talk about one of the most powerful (and underrated) strategies in the classroom—silent discussions.If you’ve ever struggled to get every stu...
Episode 395: A 5-Minute Women’s History Month Writing Routine
Want to honor Women’s History Month without adding another unit to your already packed schedule? In today's Teaching Middle School ELA podcast episode, Caitlin shares a simple five-minute writing routine that helps students practice esse...
Episode 394: Whole-Group Differentiation: 5 Strategies You Can Use Tomorrow
Hello, March and welcome back to the Teaching Middle School ELA podcast. So today, I shared five simple, whole-group strategies that make differentiation workable and sustainable without adding extra lesson plans. The focus stays on one learnin...
Episode 393: Monday Mindset: “March Is Not for Reinventing Yourself”
March is not the month for reinventing yourself. It's the month for trusting what's already working. The routines feel heavy, testing looms ahead, and suddenly the urge to reinvent your classroom creeps in. But what if this isn’t the season for...
Episode 392: The Easiest Way to Add Informational Texts Without Adding More Work
In today's Teaching Middle School ELA podcast episode, we break the myth that informational text requires a massive unit and replace it with a quiet, repeatable five-minute Friday habit. One short passage, one clear skill, four or five question...
BONUS: How to Run a March Madness Poetry Bracket in Any Classroom
March can bring some unpredictable classroom energy… but what if you could channel it into something that boosts engagement and hits reading, writing, and discussion standards all at once? In this week’s Teaching Middle school ELA podc...
Episode 391: The Friday Whiteboard Planning System That Gives You Your Evenings Back
For today's Teaching Middle School ELA podcast episode, I share the Friday whiteboard planning system that moves next week’s decisions out of your head and onto a public board, cutting mental load and Sunday dread. A simple grid create...
Episode 390: Monday Mindset: The Real Reason Teachers Burn Out (And What You Can Do Today)
In today's Monday Mindset, We call out the myth that you must fill your cup before you care for others, and replace it with a practical plan to refill while you pour. Simple, repeatable habits make space for rest, boundaries, sleep, and help so...
Episode 389: 5 Easy Steps to Create a Virtual Field Trip
Virtual field trips don’t need to be fancy to be powerful. In today’s Teaching Middle School ELA podcast episode, I have once again, Pat from Team EB, we're walking you through five simple steps for creating a virtual field trip...
Episode 388: Two Grammar Games That Replace Worksheets Without Losing Rigor
Today’s Teaching Middle School ELA episode is all about grammar games that actually work. Not the chaotic, overcomplicated kind—but the print, pass out, play, done kind. I’m sharing two of my favorite low-prep grammar games that feel lik...
Episode 387: Monday Mindset: Trust Your Decisions (Even When Everyone Else Has Opinions)
Today's Monday Mindset episode, we explore how to quiet outside noise and trust our professional judgment, especially when admin directives and social media trends collide with what we know works. We share a simple pause-and-align framework, a ...