Guest Writer: Marisa Lark Wallin Initiating conversations about race and culture in your regular reading can help young children resist being socialized into white supremacy. Black Lives Matter At School national week of action will happen this February 3-7, 2020. There are many things you can do to participate in the movement individually or with […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Real Talk: How do you know when it is time to leave a school?
We’re approaching February and many schools are preparing to distribute contracts for next school year. Teachers are thinking about their plans for the next academic year. Some teachers may even write out literal pros and cons chart to weigh their options. As you can imagine, there are various factors involved in a teacher’s decision to […]
Posted inTeacher Burnout
Survival Mode on Auto Pilot
We’ve all been there. Survival Mode on Auto-Pilot. At some point in every teacher’s career, they experience a school district, school, or classroom that they realize isn’t going to change. They’ve made complaints, documented, changed classroom management systems, altered and differentiated the curriculum, and scheduled meeting after meeting, after meeting… yet nothing changes. It’s at […]
Posted inAsk a Teacher
The Formal Observation: When Teachers and Administrators Dance
Every school year, teachers across the country play a sort of game. It is mostly an activity we play alone, like solitaire. We plan lessons in units to cover roughly 180 instructional days, with the intent that learning occurs. Most tenured teachers get one to two chances to demonstrate how we play this game and […]
Posted inHigh School
The Importance of Addressing “I’m so bored” Comments
This past semester I was in the midst of teaching one of my favorite units that I’ve ever taught in my career thus far. My students read a play about characters who are a part of a First Nations community in British Columbia, Canada. The play, titled Where the Blood Mixes, deals with tragedy and […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Opinion: The War on Teachers is a Civil War
By Adam Sutton There is a war going on, and it’s a war against teachers. It is headlined by pushes for charter schools, attacks on teacher unions, and policies promoting edtech and testing over teachers. However, those headlines are only made possible by the civil war that pits teachers against teachers. While teachers squabble with […]
Posted inTeacher Self Care
The Intention Form: Tell The Truth…Shame The Devil
Now that we’re in the second part of the school year, we already know what’s coming… The Intention Form Intention Form… Commitment Form… “Are You Staying Or Leaving Us” Form Whatever your school district calls them, they’re on the way to your teacher mailbox within the next few weeks as administrative staff go over the […]
Posted inOpinion
Accountability is a Joke
Guest Writer: Adam Sutton Accountability has been a required buzz word when talking about school reform for 20 years. It ties results to school spending. In particular, test scores and student achievement data are expected to rise with spending. Accountability’s current usage is useless and divisive. Accountability, as it stands, is a way to lay […]