Celebrating Student Work with an Authentic Audience Last month my students finally finished their book reviews. It was our first full writing unit of the year, and at times it was difficult for them. It was a very different type of writing than anything they’d done before. When their confidence or interest flagged however, I […]
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Posted inClassroom Management, Featured, From the Front Lines, High School, Instructional Strategies, Opinion
No One Wants to be ‘Managed’
Years ago I stopped presenting, coaching and even talking about ‘classroom management’. Who wants to be managed? To be ‘handled’? As an adult, I want to be led. Students want to learn and they want (yearn for) boundaries; AND they want to be led. Creating and adhering to a list of concrete rules and automatic […]
Posted inFeatured, From the Front Lines, High School, Opinion
How to Survive the Last Semester of the School Year with Your Sanity Intact!
News Flash: The Winter Break is almost over. Yup. Just like that. We wait, and wait, AND WAIT all of first semester for two unadulterated weeks to experience a WHOLE lot of Netflix and chill only to remember that it was only temporary and we have been kicked to the curb yet again until the […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, Featured, Legal, Opinion
Friedrichs v. CTA – Supreme Court Hears a Major Education Case
Today (Monday, January 11, 2016), the Supreme Court will hear the case Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association (CTA) in what could be a pivotal moment educators, their unions, collective bargaining, and fair share fees. In case you haven’t heard of this case, the crux of the issue is that 9 teachers in California are suing their union to […]
Posted inFeatured, From the Front Lines, High School, Opinion
CONVERSATIONS WITH CRAIG: How Teaching With a Friend Makes Me A Better Teacher
Almost every morning of my life, I have a conversation with one of my best friends in the world. His name is Craig. Our conversations wander. I never really know what our serpentine dialectics will yield. But there is one thing I know for sure: these conversations over the past five years have made me […]
Posted inFeatured, From the Front Lines
The Educator's Room Learning Academy Sign Up Starts Soon
Last week we sent out a survey to our readers about what issues they are having both inside and outside the classroom and how we can help. Within a week, we received over 3,000 survey responses spawning us to create a service for teachers, by teachers. Do you find yourself up at night trying to […]
Posted inClassroom Management, Featured, Instruction & Curriculum
6 Solutions for Challenging Classes
We have all had that one class. You know the one. You pray before they arrive and you pray after they leave. You have cried and cried over them and even imagined throwing things at the expensive Promethean board that cannot capture their attention. These challenging classes are the ones that we learned the most […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, Featured, High School, Instruction & Curriculum, Instructional Strategies, Literacy
Controversy: Addressing Challenging Topics in Your High School English Class
On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teenager, was killed in the streets of Ferguson, MO. On August 11, just two days later, school was scheduled to begin. As I watched the story unfold over the weekend, I was met with an anger and frustration I had not experienced since Trayvon Martin was […]