Hello! My name is Jessica Lifshitz and I currently teach 5th grade in Northbrook, IL. I have the absolute pleasure of teaching literacy to two groups of 5th grade students every year. Every day when I go to work, I look for ways to help my students not only become better readers and writers, but to become better human beings by seeing reading and writing as tools that can help them to make this world a better place.
On this blog, you are likely to find all sorts of writing. Some posts detail the reading and writing that we do each day, other posts share my thoughts about being an openly gay teacher in an elementary school, and other posts simply act as holding places for the thoughts that swirl around my head. Whatever you might be looking for, I hope you can find it here.
Crawling Out of the Classroom 
Love what you are doing. First time I’ve come across an elementary school teacher doing this work. Thank you.
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Your blog was mentioned today at Nerdcamp in Bellingham, WA in our session on social justice in kidlit. I’m digging around, reading your words, and feeling inspired to design a unit for our elementary library using some of your ideas. Thank you for writing and sharing freely. cheers, arika
Hi, I attended your talk at the Scholastic Summit in Greenwich today and just wanted to reach out and let you know that it was incredibly helpful. My wheels are turning with ways to implement your ideas in my 4th grade classroom and I greatly appreciate your creativity and hard work. Thanks! -Eileen