I sat on the couch with popcorn and soda ready for the match. “Dad! Come on, Don King is on camera!” Wide-eyed, I watched the infamous boxing promoter smile and chat with his evening’s guest. It was 1997, I was 15 years old, and had never really been into boxing. My experience with the sport […]
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Posted inChild Development
Teenage Girl Drama: Breaking The Everlasting Gobstopper
The film Mean Girls is a lesson for anybody teaching, living with, or raising teenage girls. The line between being “popular” and being “Plastic,” as the four main characters are satirized, is no doubt a fine one. Without some adult intervention, it can become an everlasting gobstopper that chokes out the functioning of the classroom. Certainly, […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
What Will it Take for White Teachers to #TalkAboutTrayvon?
Image from Flckr user @dignidadrebelde I received an e-mail today from Showing Up for Racial Justice reminding me that today is the 5th anniversary of Trayvon Martin’s death. It is hard to believe five years have passed already. It is sobering to reflect on the growth of the Movement for Black Lives alongside the growing […]
Posted inTeacher Leaders
Using your Mission Statement to Establish Classroom Routines
We all know that the best way to manage the classroom is to create a positive, structured environment. That’s an adorable concept — but it is downright difficult to figure out what the heck that positive, structured environment ought to constitute. We learn a handful of suggestions in Teacher School; but in practice, these suggestions […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
Transgender Student Rights are Human Rights
Late Wednesday night, February 22, 2017, around 9pm EST, the Trump Administration released its new directive that rescinded the federal protections for transgender students in public schools and universities. Policy until this point, passed in the Obama administration, directed there be protection for all students equally, to ensure they had access to the bathrooms, locker […]
Posted inTeacher Leaders
A Leader is Not Always a Leader
Oh my goodness! I have an abundance of, how shall I put it, VERY STRONG LEADERS in my classroom this year. You know that point where you feel like your class is completely autonomous and could run smoothly without you? Yeah, we haven’t gotten to that point because if I wasn’t present it would be […]
Posted inTeacher Leaders
Why you need a Classroom Mission Statement
A mission statement. The best businesses use them to guide direction and lead to success. Our classrooms are definitely not businesses — but I believe, like in business, that a classroom mission statement can lead us and our students toward a clear outcome, guided by a defined purpose. I’ve created a teaching philosophy before. I’ve […]
Posted inElementary School
Teaching Money Concepts To Young Students
The past few years I have become so much more conscientious about not only teaching basic money skills to my second graders, but also teaching the concept of money and saving. I have noticed that these concepts don’t seem to be taught much at home anymore. Sure it’s easy for me to implement a token […]