I have one week and three days to go before students are released for the holiday break. It is such a difficult time of year to set goals, establish a workflow and keep the enthusiasm in student learning. Students carry the stress and the burden of the holidays on themselves in a myriad of ways […]
Current Events in Education
Celebrating the Little Victories in the Classroom
This morning, I was listening to Joel Osteen and I felt that the sermon was directed towards me. It was about celebrating small victories. As teachers, we want to change the world. We have big dreams for our students and we lose sight of the little things. While the big successes are wonderful, they are […]
Community Schools – What Are They?
Community Schools have recently caught my attention as they are coming to my home city of Philadelphia. James Kenney, the newly elected mayor is interested in converting 25 schools in the city to community schools. He is a supporter of both public education and improving all neighborhoods in the city. What Are Community Schools? By […]
Terror, Terrorism, and the Teaching of Social Studies
“We are not used to live with such bewildering uncertainty” wrote Jessica Stern in a New York Times editorial How Terror Hardens Us on Sunday (12/6/15) after the San Bernardino, California, shootings. Stern, an adult, was writing about adults collectively when she used the pronoun”we.” That same bewildering uncertainty also confronts our children, our students in schools. That bewildering uncertainty is happening at […]
Ready or Redshirt? When To Send Your Child To Kindergarten: An Educator's Perspective
It’s no secret that there are more birthdays in August, September, and October than any other month. In fact, LiveScience’s 2006 study has only become more cemented by our culture and propensity for the late summer and early fall birthdays. There are many factors related to the cause of that trend, but the greatest overall […]
Landmine Ahead! – How to Traverse Politics with Students
We have almost 11 more months of dealing with pollsters, pundits, politicians, and partisans who have opinions about the presidential race. Each of the presidential candidates will take the podium, attempting to address the ills of our nation, and often chief among them is the role of education. Additionally, students will harbor their own opinion for a […]
One-Day Workshops Are Here! Join Us in 2016
In 2015 we struggled with what we could continue to do to support our thousands of readers across the world. We already publish three articles a day from teachers. We’re active on our social media channels (Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) giving advice. We’ve started offering professional development opportunities for schools and we’re constantly adding to […]
E-Sub Plans for Educators
Writing sub plans is the task I dread most as a teacher. It is time-consuming and often the best-laid plans go awry. Substitutes misinterpret directions or students use that excuse to claim that they were led astray from a meaningful task. I have found a few digital applications that have changed the nature of the […]
