The 2022 – 2023 school year marks the start of the new FAST progress monitoring testing in the state of Florida. In preparation for the new testing, a group of our Shoelace Learning summer teachers and curriculum specialists worked diligently to create FAST ELA test…

            Giant fireballs battling fierce storms, dinosaurs that walk the earth again, and a maiden voyage that comes face-to-face with the dreaded Kraken –  these are just a few of the exciting seasons featured in Dreamscape that help to boost reading practice.    Seasons…

It’s time for a new school year to begin – a fresh start for everyone! The beginning of the year is an exciting time to get settled in with your new group of scholars. There is usually a little underlying anxiety about what that group will hold. A few questions…

One of the most time-consuming parts of teaching is lesson planning and prep work. People who don’t teach often speak of how nice the schedule must be—getting home earlier than most jobs, no need to sit at a desk all day, and, most importantly, those summers off! What people don’t…

Class Missions, one of our favorite Premium Plan features, are coming to all educators for free  next week for a free trial from May 9th-13th, 2022. To get started, here's an overview of what they are, how to use them in your class, and some cool ideas from other educators to get the most out of them.

Confidence is that magical moment when “I think I can” turns into “I know I can”. When it comes to reading stamina it’s the result of being prepared (Building Block #1) and increasing our ability to focus (Building Block #2). Most importantly it’s the result of practice,…

Kids have lots of energy and they definitely know how to use it! While it’s important to harness that energy, it can also lead them astray when trying to accomplish goals. The ability to focus is built slowly, over time. It requires patience. Since patience is something that most school…

This is our second in a series of four posts on building reading stamina. You can read the introduction about why stamina is so important here. Distractions, distractions everywhere  The goal with building block one is to prepare for a focussed and uninterrupted reading session. Attention is at a…

Testing season is here! Which means it’s the time of year many of us start thinking about reading stamina. And there’s a good reason for that. Standardized testing requires a full day of focus. While the test itself might only run between 90-120 minutes, kids also need to pay attention…

There’s a key philosophy that drives our work at Dreamscape: meet students where they’re at.   Meeting students where they‘re at in practice At a high-level this is about understanding that each student is unique and that each student has their own unique way of learning. Practically, this means doing things…