One of the most maddening parts about being in education is watching programs and systems be implemented in different school environments with absolute fidelity. Countless schools have attempted to and failed to bring PBIS, Restorative Justice, AVID, and even different LMS to their campus in an effective manner. While looking for the easy way out […]
Posted inAsk a Teacher
Dear First Year Teacher: This Is a Time Like No Other
It’s been nineteen years since I walked into my first classroom, but I remember it like yesterday. It was a small private school on the far south side of Chicago. The school had little money, I was the only English teacher for 9-12 grade, and my 80+ students came from a whole range of experiences and socio-economic circumstances.
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
What Teachers Can Learn from an Afghan American Student Living in America
Teaching in Pinole, California over the past twenty years, I can count on one hand the students of Afghan descent I have encountered, let alone taught. As I watched what was unfolding in Afghanistan in the first few weeks of August of 2021, my first thoughts went to my current Afghan student who I have been blessed to know for the past four years. I had her sister in previous years as well. My mind also went back to my first Afghan family from over a decade ago, wherein I also had two of their three sisters. I became close with their families and stay connected to this day.
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Throw Your Perfect Attendance Award Away
When I reflect on my teaching career I am saddened by how much I put my attendance above my mental and physical health. Here are some examples. I wrote sub plans on the bathroom floor at three in the morning after bouts of diarrhea and chills. I screamed at an urgent care doctor, “Are you […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Why I Left Teaching and Then Went Back For My Son
After twelve years of teaching, I decided to walk away. I had enjoyed teaching for many years but was ready to take on a leadership role in education and put my recently earned master’s degree to work. I had spent the last three years of my teaching career searching for an assistant principal job with […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Creating a Trauma-Sensitive Classroom Part 2
Are you frustrated and worn out at the end of the day? Do you feel like you give everything you have and the children just don’t appreciate it? Does the next break from school look too far away for comfort? My mother taught for a total of fifty years, and, in those years, she speaks […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
The Echo of a Student’s Voice Pt. 2
I taught an 8th-grade writing class my first year of teaching. The standards allowed for 3 essays: one argumentative, one informative essay, and one narrative. A narrative essay was a strange name for a short story to me. I didn’t entirely understand the difference until I investigated the goals of the narrative essay standard. The […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Want the Best Instructional Feedback? Ask Your Students.
There came a time in my teaching career where I had to ask myself whose opinion about my instruction matters more: the administrator who comes to my classroom maybe four times per year or the students with me for 180+ days? When I started implementing the instructional feedback from my students, my instruction and student […]