I came to the United States to teach during the height of the pandemic, where all students and teachers were teaching and learning online. It is in this platform of teaching, where I experienced daily interaction and collaboration among my colleagues on how to navigate teaching through the virtual world as this was something new […]
Instruction & Curriculum
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Use Holidays to Teach Apostrophes
One thing students – and adults, for that matter – struggle with is the use of apostrophes. It’s difficult to watch people of all ages butcher the proper use of this fickle piece of punctuation, but it seems to baffle those young and old. A simple way to teach apostrophe usage is to use holidays. […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
The Bullied Teacher
Bullying has received increased attention in the past few years. Administrations have placed harder and clearer rules against student bullying, clubs, and organizations have formed in schools to address bullying, and legal actions have taken place against students who have bullied other students to the point of self-harm. Bullying, as we well know, can take […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Examining the role of privilege and audacity in stigmatizing parenting
It is a privilege to sit back and criticize someone’s parenting. And yet, as teachers, paraprofessionals, social workers, and school leaders, we often do just that. Criticize. Recently, there seems to be a reemergence of conversations on parenting in education. The blame game has been played for long enough and it’s time to stop. As […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Unveiling the roots of math phobia: A journey toward joyful learning and equity
Math phobia: Let’s begin by reiterating one of my favorite phrases as a math teacher, “Everyone’s a math person.” Individuals who appreciate puzzles, sports, video games, and problem-solving can’t genuinely harbor a dislike for math. What breeds disdain is the culture surrounding math which creates such distress that many prefer to avoid it altogether. Renowned […]
Posted inBack to School
Using Thrity Umrigar’s novels to tackle summer reading apathy
One way I suggest engaging eleventh and twelfth-grade readers — especially for summer reading assignments — involves assigning modern novels outside of the traditional canon. Two books by Thrity Umrigar, The Space Between Us (2005) and Honor (2022) created a high level of engagement in my AP English Literature students at the onset of the […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Six Ways to Retain Teacher Autonomy
In the last post, we examined the role of rhetoric in our modern classrooms, and we discussed how to both detect it and filter it into categories that you can live with or live without. Once you become more adept at detecting rhetoric and categorizing it, you may be concerned about how it affects your […]
Posted inAsk a Teacher, Instruction & Curriculum
Teaching 102: How to detect and categorize educational rhetoric
In this series of posts, veteran teacher, guide teacher and induction mentor Thomas Courtney bridges the other gap that we don’t talk enough about. That gap, the difference between what we are trained to do in our credential program, what we are asked to do by our employer, what the families and students we serve […]