Many teachers dream of leaving their home country to be an international teacher. It’s hard to blame them. The class sizes are often astronomically smaller, the pay is better (compared to the new country’s standard of living), and the benefits often include housing, airfare, more time off, and a chance to travel and learn a [...]
Until I became an educator, I never imagined superheroism influencing my professional life. Thus far, my teaching career has been marked by the release of several Avengers, Fantastic Four, and Justice League films. I have taught many a super superhero fan and acquired my own taste for the superhero genre through my fourth graders’ enthusiasm [...]
There are a thousand reasons why I worry about my students I had a challenging group this past school year. Generally, my "teacher radar" runs in the background on low intensity-ready to alert me as needed. Off-task behavior or potential disruptions elicit a ping. But with this group, I had to be constantly aware of [...]
If schools are like homes, then the location of a teacher’s classroom is often considered prime real estate. However, I did not know how much my neighborhood mattered until faced with forced relocation. Next year, the large suburban high school where I have taught since 2003 will move from random to integrated, from scattered to [...]
Teachers are well versed in the helicopter parent. The helicopter parent hovers at all times picking at small things, meddling, and is generally over-involved. They will usually try to solve each and every small problem their kid encounters by asking the teacher to get involved or blaming the problem on the teacher. This new type [...]