When President-Elect Biden announced his choice for a new secretary for education, a comment was left on the Educator’s Room blog: “Anyone from Connecticut want to weigh in?” Well, I am an educator in Connecticut, but I think weighing in on the nominee Miguel Cardona is premature. Cardona, the Connecticut Commissioner of Education, was appointed [...]
Painless Poetry "Gross! I hate this stuff!" "This is too hard, I don't wanna do it!" "It never makes sense to me, it's all so weird." Then the calm voice of reason speaks- "Ladies, we have to teach it, it's part of the curriculum." What is this dreaded standard? Poetry. That single word would often [...]
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 [...]
When the original Hunger Games series was released, with its conclusion published in 2010, I was busy teaching 8th grade English at a suburban/rural middle school in Tennessee. I immediately saw possibilities in the book and was encouraged by a colleague’s work with the first novel at another middle school. I began using the first [...]
We’re a week away from returning to in-person teaching for the new school year and the obvious anxieties and fear about being back at school, where the spread of COVID-19 feels inevitable and is on everyone’s minds. This year, teaching will take on new challenges and risks, and no amount of mental preparation will make [...]