I recently woke up to discover that either a ghost or gravity knocked down all the Christmas decorations on my fireplace mantel. The frame around my TV was broken, my favorite thrifted brass deer lay on the floor, and a still-glowing battery candle was flung across the room. After taking in the chaos, I thought, well, this is the perfect metaphor for 2025. It’s been messy, chaotic, and jarring, yet here I am doing the best I can to keep my light shining.
So with that, here are some highlights from my annual Building Book Love recap (we won’t talk about the lowlights, ha!).
If you’d like to also read past years and more about my process, you can check those out here:
- How I plan out my year using a Google Doc
- Building Book Love 2022 Year End Review
- Building Book Love 2023 Year-End Recap
- Building Book Love 2024 Wrapped
Top 3 Most Popular New Posts of the Year:
- The top spot goes to: Teacher Daily Agenda Slides in PowerPoint or Google (With Examples)
Speaking of chaos, agenda slides can work wonders in taming disorder in your classroom. I’m glad so many of you were interested in making your teaching life easier this year!
I know I say this every year, but my annual classroom setup was a special one! I’m happy that you enjoyed reading about it!
I loved writing this post! I want to find more time to really dig into research-backed classroom strategies, so this being in the top three tells me I’m on the right track!
Here are the rest of my posts from 2025 in case you missed them:
- Naturalism Short Story: Teaching To Build a Fire by Jack London
- Atomic Habits for English Teachers
- Satire Examples: Teaching A Modest Proposal
- 5 Creative Ways to Use Free Book Passages in English Class
- Teaching Julius Caesar Activities: Play Lesson Plans and Ideas
- Teaching A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Shakespeare Activities and Lesson Plans
- 5 End of Year Party Ideas for ELA Students
- Best Professional Development Books for English Teachers
- ELA Classroom Decorations: Theme Ideas for English Teachers
- The World on the Turtle’s Back Lesson Plan Ideas
- Color Symbolism: The Masque of the Red Death Activities
- Teaching American Literature: Course Outline, Introduction, & Lesson Plans
- Teaching Mars Patel: Podcast Worksheets, Activities, & Discussion Questions
- A Christmas Carol Teaching Ideas: Activities for a Festive Novel Study
Favorite New Freebies:
I’ve been blogging for ten years now, and I’m proud to still be able to provide free content for English teachers. Many bloggers are switching to subscription models to 1. Keep Ai from stealing their work and 2. To recoup loss of income due to Ai. For now, BuildingBookLove.com will remain free and that’s thanks to your readership and patronage at my TpT shop.
As a thank you, I love providing freebies all throughout my blog, and here are your favorite NEW freebies of 2025:
2025 Resource Updates
I’m committed to updating my resources so that you’ll always have the best for your students. Here are the updates I was able to complete this year. If you already own them, be sure to redownload and get the FREE updates!
- Naturalism Short Story: To Build a Fire by Jack London Activities + Pairings (complete overhaul!)
- William Shakespeare Biography Worksheets: Shakespeare Intro + Test Prep, Poetry (now editable!)
- Light Academia Classroom Decor: Middle School Classroom Decor, Canva Editable (now editable!)
- Retro Classroom Decor Bundle: Cute Middle & High School Decor Editable in Canva (now editable!)
- Macbeth Unit: Macbeth Pre Reading Activities, Macbeth Act 1-Act 5, Macbeth Test (Discussion questions added!)
2025 New Resources
When I polled my audience, you said that my TpT resources were the most helpful thing I do at Building Book Love. So, I know that the best thing I can do for you is to create new, helpful resources. Here are the new resources I added in 2025:
- Julius Caesar Unit Plan: Fun Julius Caesar Shakespeare Activities, Final Project
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream Unit Plan: Fun Activities Acts 1-5, Editable Lessons
- Cozy Cafe Themed Classroom Decor: Middle & High School Decor, Editable in Canva
- Ultimate ELA Holiday Bundle: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, +MORE
- The Masque of the Red Death by Poe: Color Symbolism, Lesson Plans, & Activities
- The Hollow Podcast Worksheets: 5th-6th Grade Halloween Activity, Podcast Notes
- Mars Patel Podcast Worksheets: Podcast Response for Disappearance of Mars Patel
- A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Activities for Novel Study, Fun Unit Plan
Though 2025 has been a difficult one for me, I’m filled with gratitude for having the opportunity to write and create for English teachers. This will be year 12 for me, and even after all this time, it’s still my dream job. I can’t thank you enough for reading and sharing my blog. I truly appreciate your readership and look forward to continuing to inspire you and support you in 2026!
