Every teacher comes into the profession ready to change the world one life at a time. Every teacher also learns quickly that changing the world is exhausting. 10 years ago, my buddy gave me a ride home from work. As I stumbled out of his car holding what looked like a metric ton of stuff, […]
Ask a Teacher
Learn about how to ask a teacher about what really happens in a classroom.
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 […]
Teaching High School In December: A Three-Point Survival Guide
For high school students, the month of December has lost its luster. There is no belief in Santa, and the elf is missing from its shelf. Replacing the holiday excitement is a mature appreciation of scarcity and disparity. Adolescents are a blend of intellect and naivety. Their eyes are opening to a world that they […]
Getting Children to Understand The Value of Teaching Shakespeare
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 […]
Opinion: Why Teachers Shouldn’t Write Curriculum
The word “curriculum,” as it pertains to education, can include everything from the materials used to teach our students to the planned learning experiences. If we think of the Common Core standards as the academic destination for our students (the “what” we want them to know and be able to do), our curriculum is the […]
5 Tips for Navigating the International School Job Fair
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 […]
Thanks For The Compliment, But I’m Not A Superhero
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 […]
Why I Worry About My Students
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 […]