At a faculty meeting, a colleague once whispered to me, “So, what do you actually do in your English class if everyone already knows how to read and write?” Though it was an innocent enough question from a chemistry teacher, it brought me to the halting realization that the abstract nature of a high school […]
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Using editorials to engage students in writing in middle and high school
As a high school English teacher, it was nothing for me to grade 120 five-paragraph essays every week. If it was a particularly rigorous unit, you find me wading through five to seven-page literary analysis in my Advanced Placement Literature class. If I was quick, I could have the papers graded within a two-week period. […]
The Building Blocks for Strong Middle and High School Writers
It was year five in my teaching career, and our principal called us in to bemoan our writing scores from the previous year. It was all the same buzzwords (fidelity, accountability, etc.), and I remember asking a question that changed my teaching beliefs. “If we want kids to be better writers, why aren’t we making […]
Going Back to High School to Teach a G.E.D. Class in a Language Not My Own
A professor revisits standardized testing, immigration policy, and the salience of Paulo Freire in times of cultural war
I’m a High School English Teacher. I’m Not Scared of ChatGPT
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! I remember the first time I questioned whether a student paper was actually theirs. In an age before advanced plagiarism checkers, a colleague suggested that I Google a key phrase from the paper. I put the phrase in quotation […]
Make Voter Registration a Priority at Your High School
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! Every two to four years, we hear about the need to register young people to vote. Pundits bemoan the low turnout numbers that we see from 18 to 25-year-olds. Experts hypothesize about why they do not choose to exercise […]
A High School Teacher’s Case for Early Childhood Educators
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! I knew that I wanted to be a high school English teacher from the time I was a freshman in high school. But as the child of a SAHM, I had also convinced myself that I was destined for […]
How to Use Social Justice Picture Books With High Schoolers
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! Picture books are colorful, vibrant, and creative…so let’s not ditch them after chapter books come along! As a parent I have re-discovered my love of some classic picture books, but mostly, I am discovering a vast new world of modern children’s literature. Many […]