Maybe my millennial is showing, but VH1’s “Watch and Discuss” campaign had an incredible impact on how I taught novels in my grade 8 standard ELA class. I wondered, what if I took the same concept and applied it to reading in English class? I made reading a novel as engaging as watching a VH1 […]
Confessions of a Teacher
What are the confessions of a teacher? Read these articles and find out.
Posted inAdult Learning
The A-Z’s of this Burned-Out Teacher
By: Lori Foxwell: Through hard work and determination, I was able to fulfill my childhood dream of becoming a teacher. I have my master’s degree in education and have taught young children for over twenty years. I am a proud mom, wife, and lover of all thing’s cats. Most of all, I am lucky to […]
Posted inAdult Learning
Unfair Teacher Expectations: Changing the Rulebook for the Profession
Kelly Riesselman is a 5th-grade reading, writing, and social studies teacher in the Midwest. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature and a master’s in elementary education. Kelly’s goal as an educator is to help students learn to see their own self-worth, take responsibility for their own learning, and cultivate a love of learning. […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
How This Teacher Healed from Racial Trauma
Kim Lee is a physics teacher at Pinole Valley High School in West Contra Costa Unified School District. She has been teaching for the last four years. She is the teacher sponsor of the Anti-Racism Club and helps run the Peer Tutoring Program. She is committed to promoting diversity and equity through STEM education, as […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Teachers Didn’t Sign Up for This
It’s 11:49 pm on Tuesday night at my house. The kitchen is clean. The house is locked up. The kids are asleep, my dog is asleep, and for once, I can sit down and hear the sounds of nothing in my house. Yet, as I finally sit down in my recliner to try and grade […]
Posted inParents
10 Lessons About Teaching from My Youngest Son
Isaiah, my second son, celebrated his 3rd birthday on May 4. When he was born and I held him in my arms, I thought about all the things I had learned from his older brother. I went home a few days later and shared my thoughts with you all, only to come around this side […]
Posted inClassroom Management
Ending the Epithet “Try-Hard” Once and for All in Classrooms
“Stop being such a try-hard, Tina.” There are many words kids use to insult one another. Most of them are so bad I wouldn’t dare print them here. They’re also so wrong and reprehensible that teachers quickly swoop in and stop it. But for this term – the “try hard” – teachers just laugh it […]
Posted inConfessions of a Teacher
Would Education Collapse If Teachers Stopped Working for Free?
On Friday, the science teacher on my team rolled past my door on Friday afternoon. In hand – or on wheels, rather – were 2 carts full of spirit wear that she and her student council members created, sold, and distributed. “Only crazy people come back to school on Fridays.” When our school’s nurse retired […]