In the past, we’ve explored the “10 Ways to Fix Education” mini-series. We’re resurrecting this topic, and one way I’d like to fix education is teaching class (with class). This homophone highlights two items that should be at the forefront of our working memory and, well, our work. The first association – class, a noun […]
Posted inFeatured
Top Ten Signs That You Are a High School Teacher
You might be a high school teacher if… 1 – Your number one criteria for work clothes is that they aren’t too revealing when you stand at the board, climb on a chair to turn on the projector, bend over a students’ desk to give extra help, or jump over a fence to catch a […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
[Podcast S2E3] Why I Left Teaching to Poop in a Bucket
Introduction Welcome to Episode 4 Season two of The Educator’s Room podcast! In this episode, Franchesca interviews Christina Gil, former seventeen-year public school veteran about why she decided to use her mid-life crisis to leave teaching and go and live on a homestead community in rural Missouri. Every teacher has gone through it- days where you wonder […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
A Seventeen-Year Veteran Teacher’s Regrets: The Grade Game
In the many years I’ve been teaching, I’ve often wished that I could just have a group of students who smilingly followed my every instruction. But beyond instruction, one of my biggest goals as a teacher was to get my students to think for themselves. However, it was difficult to reflect that goal in my grading […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
#EdTechCorner: Owl Eyes Helps With Annotation
One of the ‘banes of my existence’ as an English teacher is having to teach classical literature and then watching my students struggle through every single line for basic comprehension. Twenty years ago, I’d pull out my trusty guides that annotated the work(s) line by line. These days though, with technology at the forefront of […]
Posted inBack to School
The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Believing in ALL Students
Tell me if these statements sound familiar to you: “Johnny will never understand how to divide with fractions.” “Andre scored a Level 1 on his test last year…we really need to focus on the students we can move to proficiency.” “Victoria doesn’t even know how to write a sentence. There’s no way she’ll ever write a […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Why You Should Experiment on Your Students This Year
I have been a teacher for seventeen years, so yes, there are many lessons or activities that I have done exactly the same every year. I love my discussion on class and power in Romeo and Juliet, I have the same handout that I have been using for my sentence imitation lesson for twelve years, and I […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Please Stop Teaching Students to Identify Literary Elements
I have been trying to sell resources on Teachers Pay Teachers, and I admit to stalking checking out some of the top sellers. Many of them sell handouts or posters, or worksheets that teach students to identify literary elements. In my opinion, this type of lesson is a complete waste of time. There is no […]