Teachers work in many different environments: charter schools, private schools, or public schools. We all have our own opinions about school choice, but my most interesting teaching environment was in the woods. Teaching adjudicated youth in a wilderness therapy center was where I learned more about myself than I ever knew possible, both as a […]
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Posted inCurrent Events in Education, Featured, Instructional Strategies
Talking About Brussels (and Ankara, Lahore…) With 3rd Graders
Wednesday morning as our daily morning meeting came to an end, one of my students raised her hand. A quiet, thoughtful girl, she wanted to know if our class would be doing something in response to the terrorist attacks in Brussels. In the winter after the Paris attacks, we had put together a “peace party” […]
Posted inAdult Learning, Child Development, Classroom Management, Confessions of a Teacher, Current Events in Education, Elementary School, Featured, From the Front Lines, High School, Instructional Strategies, Kindergarten, Middle School, Opinion, Parents, Professional Development, School Improvement, Special Education
The Mental State of Teaching
“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” – William James Is anyone else climbing into this boat and dropping anchor? I know I am. My life has been turned upside down since January with personal struggles, professional struggles and just day-to-day struggles that seem to be heavier than […]
Posted inFeatured, Opinion
The Original Purpose of Charter Schools
For me, the core of the charter school issue lies in the difference between what charters were originally intended to be, and what they have become. The original model (and I can remember hearing about this when I was a teenager), was a student-centered, educator-designed and delivered, locally controlled endeavor. Consider the New York Times, […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, English Language Learners, ESOL, Featured, From the Front Lines, Professional Development, School Improvement, Social Justice, Uncategorized
Hidden Stories of the Average American Classroom
I recently attended a professional development presentation on poverty, and one slide that struck me was the structure of the average American classroom. In fact, I cannot stop thinking about it. Doris Baboian (our presenter and Director of Student Services in my district) noted a 2007 joint study by the U.S. Department of Education and […]
Posted inFeatured, From the Front Lines
Teaching With Fibromyalgia: When You’re Too Tired to Move
The teaching profession, as all us teachers know, is exhausting most days. You do things like greet students happily, come up with engaging lessons, put students in collaborative groups, deal with sassy students without losing composure, prevent students from getting into fights, go to meetings that last an hour or more, handle student behaviors during […]
Posted inFeatured, From the Front Lines
Teaching With Fibromyalgia: When You're Too Tired to Move
Sometimes I wake up exhausted and so sore that I feel as if I lifted a thousand weights the day before. The exhaustion alone makes it difficult to get out of bed, but the pain really makes it difficult to move. After hitting the snooze button three times, I get up and get myself and […]
Posted inElementary School, Featured, How to Fix Education, Instruction & Curriculum, Technology
Skype Connections to Learning
One of our fourth grade standards in Kansas is US states. Students learn about the regions including their geography, climate, economy and cultures. We spend time researching and learning about the various states while comparing them to Kansas. Students become travel agents to different places. While it would be wonderful to have the funds to fly […]