Gather ye rose-buds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying; And this same flower that smiles today Tomorrow will be dying. The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun, The higher he’s a-getting, The sooner will his race be run, And nearer he’s to setting. It happens suddenly in the course of a teaching […]
Instruction & Curriculum
Posted inAdult Learning
One Future of K-12 Education: From the Factory to a Personalized Model
From the Factory to a Personalized Model If you’re old enough, try to think back to the way teaching and learning was designed 40 or 50 years ago. The teacher was the “sage on the stage.” He or she had the subject information in their mind, and it was up to the teacher to make […]
Posted inTeacher Leaders
Project-Based Learning: A User’s Guide
Over the past several decades, trends in education have come and gone or been resurrected with a new name. “Group work” is now called “cooperative learning.” Teacher-centered learning in the form of lecture and discussion in secondary education has taken a back seat to student-centered learning where students have a greater voice in determining how […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Keeping Your Teaching Real: A Teacher’s Role
Education has slowly been changing over the last decade. Classrooms are becoming student-centered and the teacher’s role is changing. While I am very comfortable giving my students choice and voice in my classroom, sometimes I feel lost while they are working. What is my role? How do I know I am meeting their needs? How do […]
Posted inConfessions of a Teacher
10 Thoughts During a Failed Lesson
Thought 1: “I like this lesson” It might not be my best, but I’m satisfied with it. It’s educational. It’s collaborative. There’s some entertainment value. It certainly is important to their lives and what we’ve been previously talking about. It’ll be successful. Thought 2: “What the h*#%! is going on here?!” It doesn’t seem like […]
Posted inAsk a Teacher
Using Current Events in Teaching the Executive Branch
As an eighth-grade civics teacher, I am about to start my unit of study on the Executive Branch. To be honest, I’m a little scared. Strike that. I am very scared. “Why are you scared, George?” you may ask. “If you stick to the facts, you’ll have nothing to worry about,” In normal times, I’d […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Student Activists Lead the Way
How the Parkland students became those activists Will it be student activists who force political action regarding gun violence in America? Maybe that’s exactly what this country needs. Mere days after the February 14th shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas School in Parkland Florida, Emma Gonzales, one of the student-survivors, was calling out politicians at a […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Do You Want Me To Carry a Gun? Teaching in a Time of Lockdowns…
“Do you want me to carry a gun?” The controversial question I ask my students the day we return after the mid-winter break. The responses vary each class block. Some kids, say “yes,” others giggle. Most shake their heads negatively. Each of my four sections of sophomore-level Global History is distinct in their desire to […]