I’ve spent enough times surrounded by negativity. I’ve gone the other way when the “negative teacher” walks down the hallway. I’ve watched people publicly belittle my profession and union over and again. I’ve led that union and had to open far too many negative emails of plea / help / disdain. I’ve hoped for that […]
Child Development
Positive Reinforcement: When Do We Want It? NOW
While I realize that effective classroom management is essential to effective teaching and learning, I sometimes worry that we educators over-do it. Are we failing to inspire a basic desire to do the right thing? Do we really need to hand out prizes for making it to school every day and not acting like an […]
Teaching the “I Can’t” Student
People are raised hearing all kinds of information about themselves from those around them. From a young age, we overhear the conversations our parents have about how great we are at sports, how academically gifted we are, or the kinds of things we struggle with. This constant narration of our strengths and downfalls begins to […]
Learning to See Through Fine Arts
In high school, I was taught how to see. The best art teacher I have ever had stood in front of the class and gave us the simplest explanation as to why our drawings and paintings did not look lifelike. The images being recorded on our pages were symbols of what we thought pictures should […]
Using Games In the Classroom To Teach Life Principles
We are experiencing a lot of spring thunderstorms here in Oklahoma, which means inside recess. Oh my. Those two words used to swirl me into a completely bad mood, knowing that the kids would want to get caught up in some digital device, which I can’t stand. Or worse yet, would complain that they were […]
Sesame Street’s Julia: Changing the Way We See Autism
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”  This quote from women’s rights advocate and cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead – could also be Sesame Street’s mission statement. Since its premiere on November 10, 1969, Sesame Street has brought the fundamentals […]
Teaching Empathy with Concrete Examples
“They just want to sleep in their own bed” The first 50-plus days of Donald Trump’s presidency have provoked an intense mixture of anxiety, fear, anger, and urgency for many Americans. As the great-grandson of immigrants who fled anti-Semitic pogroms in Eastern Europe, it’s heartbreaking to see our president close the country’s doors to refugees and […]
Teenage Girl Drama: Breaking The Everlasting Gobstopper
The film Mean Girls is a lesson for anybody teaching, living with, or raising teenage girls. It’s no doubt that the line between being “popular” and being “Plastic,” as the 4 main characters are satirized, is a fine one. And, without some adult intervention, it can become an everlasting gobstopper that chokes out the functioning of […]