I attended several sessions on Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice at this year’s NCTM Annual Conference. I noticed similar faces in all of the sessions I selected. This meant that hundreds of other faces had completely excluded this topic as one of value to their pedagogical growth. I started wondering how this important work would […]
Social Studies
Posted inClassroom Management, Middle School, Opinion, Social Studies
It's Not Just a Classroom; It Could be a Museum
I think every teacher has been asked the following question: What does your ideal classroom look like?    I know some teachers think about the answer to this question every day. Some answers include an interactive whiteboard, a few computers or tablets – preferably iPads and MacBooks or Chromebooks, and round tables over desks. In a […]
Posted inEducational Apps, School Improvement, Social Studies, Technology
Generating Work Flow in 1:1 iPad Classroom
I’m finishing this first full quarter with the 1:1 iPad classroom but apps do not hold attention spans this time of year. With April, love springs to life in all of its awkward forms. Attention spans are diverted towards prom invitations and long looks out windows; lacrosse, melting snows on the softball diamond hold great appeal. Thus […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum, Middle School, Social Studies
My first day at the Organization of American Historians 2014 Conference in Atlanta
April 11, 2014: I am excited to be at this conference. I am a huge history nerd, so of course going to a conference that helps fulfill that love is nice. I am also an educator so I am interested in how this conference of historians could relate to my and other’s educational practices. My […]
Posted inSocial Studies
Revolutionary Thinking- Pay-Based Grading
There are two studies that have survived the test in my classroom: 1) All students can relate to the reasons for revolution and the need to rebel, and 2) All students like the challenge of a good game. Thus, March Madness is an opportune time of year to combine the two. Students have engaged in […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum, School Improvement, Social Studies, Technology
The Absent Educator in a 1:1 iGen Classroom
Every once in a while, I have to take a sick day as a result of my own human frailty. A foot surgery scheduled for April was suddenly bumped up to last week, leaving me three days to prepare. As an educator, I hate missing school and I despise writing sub plans. Even with the […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum, Social Studies, Technology
Week 5/6: iPad Rollout- Differentiation
Living in Vermont means making amends for educational productivity when a perfect snowstorm blankets the state. Students and teachers embrace the cold powder while it lasts. We ski, we snowboard, we play hard. No wonder Vermont supplies a proportionate number of Olympians. At school we gained one actual snow day and then a week of […]
Posted inFrom the Front Lines, Interviews, Middle School, Social Studies
Veteran Teacher Reflects on his Olympic Race
I had been teaching for two years when my colleague and future husband was named to the 1998 Olympic team to Nagano Japan. It was a classic story. A full time teacher takes a year off from the daily grind of education, transfers that intensity, focus, dedication and stamina into skiing and wins the one […]