On a cold day in central New York, I had the fantastic opportunity to take 26 students to tour the Harriet Tubman National Park, located in Auburn, NY. After an enlightening hour, we loaded onto the yellow submarine (aka the school bus) and watched the movie Harriet at the local Movie Tavern. By the end of the [...]
Becoming a math teacher leader was never really on my radar. When I first started teaching math, I taught the way I was taught or how the textbook presented topics. Many of my students struggled with this method of teaching, so I looked for alternatives. When opportunities for professional development in math arose, I signed [...]
You know that something has gone wrong in a professional workshop when the experience starts to feel disrespectful. I sat in a workshop today from 9 am to 3 pm about a new math curricular resource. Approximately an hour and a half into the workshop, I started to feel pretty angry, because the training was [...]
Every year, I get to the part in my high school curriculum where I start to introduce Shakespeare's Macbeth. And every year, the students complain. "Why do we have to read this?" "What's even the point of Shakespeare?" "I don't understand anything that's happening right now." "What is this?!" And every year, I tell them [...]
The past few articles I’ve written have been controversial. The craziest response I’ve received has been “Wow! Can tell you are young and have a long way to go! In fact get out now! Your students and parents deserve it...” When I first read this response, my “irritated, frustrated, and over it” reaction was “I’m [...]