[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”] I am an animal person. Always have been. And not in a needy-gotta-take-care-of-something sort of way (although I do love it when I get to bottle feed a rescue), but in […]
Classroom Management
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
A First Year Teacher’s Lesson From Student Vomit
It happened, not two weeks into the school year. A student vomited during class. Now, this is something for which my teaching credential program did not prepare me. The cheerleader shrieked, the surrounding students rapidly pushed back their desks, and the room was consumed with student reactions and freak-outs. Meanwhile, Chad sat there, as if […]
Posted inClassroom Management, Elementary School, Featured, Kindergarten
How to Decorate Your Secondary Classroom
At the end of last year, I changed positions. The difficult part of that was being expected to “replace” one of our best teachers in the entire district. Part of this involved his fun, learning-based classroom environment that he’d created over the 30-odd years of being there. I still remember one of my colleagues saying […]
Posted inClassroom Management, From the Front Lines, How to Fix Education, Instruction & Curriculum, New Teacher Bootcamp, The New Teacher Chronicles, Uncategorized
No “Over” Needed in Whelmed New Teachers
My school district completed four days of first class professional development that began with a visit from Dave Burgess, the author of Teach Like a Pirate and ended with faculty-led collaborative committees organizing for an accreditation visit from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). In four short days, the veteran teachers adjusted, organized classrooms, and prepared […]
Posted inClassroom Management, Featured, Instruction & Curriculum, Middle School, Opinion
Using Edmodo In Elementary Classrooms
I am always looking for new and innovative ways to enhance my teaching and my classroom. Preferably ways which aren’t too expensive. As an elementary classroom teacher, I also have to be careful with what my students are exposed to. To this I have one word. Edmodo. Oh, how I have fallen in love with […]
Posted inClassroom Management, Featured, Instruction & Curriculum, New Teacher Bootcamp, Special Education
What Every Teacher Should Know About Teaching Students with Disabilities
What does it take to effectively teach a student with a learning disability? That’s the million dollar question. But if I could take a stub at it, I would say relationship, relationship, relationship- pure and simply. With all the different theory on best practices, this one seems to be left off the list very frequently. […]
Posted inClassroom Management, Featured
Extend the Learning: An Important Classroom Management System
Learning is an ongoing process involving effort, failure, persistence, and growth. I have been teaching for seventeen years and I learn new things from my students every year. I am an exemplary teacher and yet I am not done. This is what I model and expect of my students as well. Learning is never “done.” […]
Posted inClassroom Management, Featured, High School
A New School Year: Here Comes the Fear Again
I’m starting my fifth year as a high school English teacher. I have a M.Ed. in Educational Psychology, I’ve established myself as a solid member of a department that could give the X-Men a run for their money, and I’ve gained enough political clout to be relocated from a small, windowless classroom (which I affectionately […]