Years ago I stopped presenting, coaching and even talking about ‘classroom management’. Who wants to be managed? To be ‘handled’? As an adult, I want to be led. Students want to learn and they want (yearn for) boundaries; AND they want to be led. Creating and adhering to a list of concrete rules and automatic […]
Classroom Management
Posted inClassroom Management, Featured, Instruction & Curriculum
6 Solutions for Challenging Classes
We have all had that one class. You know the one. You pray before they arrive and you pray after they leave. You have cried and cried over them and even imagined throwing things at the expensive Promethean board that cannot capture their attention. These challenging classes are the ones that we learned the most […]
Posted inClassroom Management, Instruction & Curriculum
New Year's Goals as an Educator
Remember the excitement you felt at the beginning of the school year? Round two starts this month and you have an amazing opportunity as an educator. You get to make a difference in a child’s life. Just as you set goals and made plans in August, pause and help your students start the year right […]
Posted inClassroom Management, Featured, Instruction & Curriculum
Five Ways to Increase Student Engagement
Not everything in life comes easily, we know this and we harp and harp on students to “try harder” while sometimes they are giving it all they got and it is not good enough. We all have those moments where we feel like nothing we do is ever good enough. Imagine how it feels to […]
Posted inClassroom Management, Elementary School, Instruction & Curriculum
Take A Break in Time for the Holiday Season
The time from Thanksgiving through Christmas break is a paradox of time. The days blend together and fly by as the end of semester checklist is slowly completed. But the hours seem to crawl by as you fight against commercialism, seasonal change and holiday excitement for the attention of your students. Here are a few […]
Posted inClassroom Management, Featured, Special Education
Under the Guise of Inclusion
I remember the days in the 1960’s and 70’s when Special Education was not even a word, and anyone that had disabilities was rarely seen or heard. I’m so thankful today that we have so many programs that help students with disabilities, but as state budgets get tighter, the push for more special support staff reduction […]
Posted inClassroom Management, Featured, Instructional Strategies
Letting Go of Classroom Management and Embracing Community Building
My first year of teaching was terrible. I will always remember a moment where I watched my students in disbelief as if it was an out-of-body experience. Paper balls flew back and forth and one particularly defiant child stood on top of his desk to do his best Michael Jackson impression. I had big dreams of leading […]
Posted inClassroom Management, Featured, Instructional Strategies
The Difference between Character Education and Indoctrination
Since the beginning of the educational system begun by Plato’s Academy, the importance of instilling virtue was an understood and mandatory task of the teacher. In the past century, however, with the rise of technology and the ever increasing amount of knowledge at the resource of education the role of Character Education has lost its important […]