After months of battling, Congress has passed a bill where K-12 public schools are poised to receive billions to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic that has ravaged communities and school budgets. In the coming days, President Trump is expected to sign a $900 Billion dollar package to help families, boost the faltering economy and with […]
Coronavirus
A Student in my Class Has COVID, Now What?
Like most teachers, I had been managing to keep a level head regardless of the immense pressure I am under in today’s classroom climate. Doing my best to provide quality virtual, hybrid instruction; remain positive and upbeat for my students; and having an overall optimistic demeanor in the face of a deadly pandemic. So naturally, […]
How Reverse Halloween Helped My Students Feel Connected to Me As Their Teacher
If I’m being honest, not everyone understood the concept of reversing Halloween at first. But I was convinced the theory was sound. And perhaps because I’ve known how disconnected my own daughter feels, I’ve tried to find creative ways to connect with families. I’ve formed friendships with dogs, left a lot of things on doorsteps. […]
James Gets a Grip on Losing: A Lesson for Today
By Julie Letofsky I’ve been thinking a lot this past week about James, a child in my second grade class years ago. James loved recess more than anything that went on in the classroom. Basketball, soccer, even just tossing a football – James lived for these activities. He was hyper-competitive; he HAD to be the […]
Rebranding the Dreaded Essay: How to Demystify Essays and Make Them Meaningful During COVID-19
Whenever students hear the word “essay,” they groan, eye roll, and plead for something, anything else. Similarly, most adults I know remember high school or college essays they grudgingly finished just under the wire; late-night coffee, obsessive word counting, and a fair amount of teacher-specific bs-ing. It’s clear “The Essay” gets a bad rap, and […]
A Final Lesson For Us All in Propaganda as a Teacher
Recently, a teacher in Paris named Samuel Paty was beheaded after giving a lesson on the importance of freedom of thought. With all going on in the news these days, I barely noticed it at first. Yet, as I wrote recently, a dangerous ideology that subverts free and intellectual discourse is growing and making inroads […]
I’m Not a Lunch Bunch Kind of Teacher But COVID-19 Has Changed Me
by Jennifer M. Sierra I’ve never been a “lunch bunch” kind of teacher. I’ve spent most of my career teaching high school—mostly juniors, a few sophomores, a few seniors. Even now, in my fourth year of teaching middle school, the concept of a lunch bunch is still way too elementary for me. Additionally, it’s […]
Shaking, Sanitized Hands: Building New Student Relationships while Grieving Old Ones
My hands were shaking as the bell rang for the first day of the 2020-2021 school year. I know it sounds cliche to say that my hands were shaking. Everyone writes that their hands were shaking to indicate nervousness but I’m not being hyperbolic when I say that my hands were literally shaking so hard […]