Introduction Welcome to Episode 4 Season two  of The Educator’s Room podcast! In this episode, Franchesca interviews Christina Gil, former seventeen-year public school veteran about why she decided to use her mid-life crisis to leave teaching and go and live on a homestead community in rural Missouri. Every teacher has gone through it- days where you wonder […]
Instruction & Curriculum
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
A Seventeen-Year Veteran Teacher’s Regrets:Â The Grade Game
In the many years I’ve been teaching, I’ve often wished that I could just have a group of students who smilingly followed my every instruction.  But beyond instruction, one of my biggest goals as a teacher was to get my students to think for themselves. However, it was difficult to reflect that goal in my grading […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
#EdTechCorner: Owl Eyes Helps With Annotation
One of the ‘banes of my existence’ as an English teacher is having to teach classical literature and then watching my students struggle through every single line for basic comprehension. Twenty years ago, I’d pull out my trusty guides that annotated the work(s) line by line. These days though, with technology at the forefront of […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Why You Should Experiment on Your Students This Year
I have been a teacher for seventeen years, so yes, there are many lessons or activities that I have done exactly the same every year. I love my discussion on class and power in Romeo and Juliet, I have the same handout that I have been using for my sentence imitation lesson for twelve years, and I […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Please Stop Teaching Students to Identify Literary Elements
I have been trying to sell resources on Teachers Pay Teachers, and I admit to stalking checking out some of the top sellers. Many of them sell handouts or posters, or worksheets that teach students to identify literary elements. In my opinion, this type of lesson is a complete waste of time. There is no […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Embracing Questions: Why I Chose Inquiry Based Learning
Last fall, my principal kept preaching about Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and how the entire faculty should be changing our curriculum to fit this philosophy. Ineffectively for me, all of her examples were math and science related. Scouring the web didn’t inspire me either. My colleagues and I could not picture a way to completely rewrite […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
My Favorite Routines for Classroom Management
I am all for getting students to try new things and push their boundaries once in a while, but I don’t think it will come as a surprise that one of the best ways to manage a class is to establish routines and then stick to them. Students know what to expect, they feel comfortable […]
Posted inChild Development
You Can Teach Children Living in Poverty
Right after you begin your daily class starter, Johnny comes into class late and doesn’t have his supplies. He looks despondent. Next thing you know, he’s thrown his books on the floor and put his hoodie on over his head. What do you do? Consider this:Â Does Johnny come from a house where he has his […]