A decade ago, I was the first classroom teacher at my elementary school to complete a round of RTI. The counselor, principal and I went into the process with confusion, determined to get a struggling third-grade student the help she needed. Since those early RTI days, I’ve provided tier II and III interventions and watched […]
From the Front Lines
Posted inFrom the Front Lines
Teachers Talk about RTI: The Educator’s Room Survey Results
RTI – Response to Intervention – has made its way to the top of the list of most commonly used education acronyms. Since changes to policy language in the 2004 Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), the Response to Intervention framework has emerged as the favored way to identify students with learning disabilities. After a decade […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Looking for Joy? Find It In Your Classroom
I don’t blog as much as I would like these days, but in my first year of teaching, I kept an almost daily record of my experiences. My family and friends would read these posts, and for the most part feel very sad for me. But my uncle, a teacher, had a different reaction. I […]
Posted inSpecial Education
Making Special Education Work For Everyone
I teach in a mild/moderate special education classroom, meaning that all of my kids are on IEPs and have been placed in my room because they meet disability criteria that my school district recognizes. They are able to attend a regular education classroom for all other subjects besides reading, language arts, math and adaptive behavior. […]
Posted inFrom the Front Lines
5 Things I’d Tell Myself in My Earlier Teaching Years
My first few years of teaching were spent scrambling to assemble the perfect lesson plans that would engage my students and still be fun. I spent hours at work instead of with my family. I was completely dedicated and yet afraid of failure. Sometimes, I felt a little lost and sometimes wondered if I had […]
Posted inTeacher Burnout
A Teacher’s Power of Positivity
I’ve spent enough times surrounded by negativity. I’ve gone the other way when the “negative teacher” walks down the hallway. I’ve watched people publicly belittle my profession and union over and again. I’ve led that union and had to open far too many negative emails of plea / help / disdain. I’ve hoped for that […]
Posted inConfessions of a Teacher
Yes, Breaking Up (with a text) is Hard to Do
It’s not you. It’s the text. It’s moving on…to another grade level. “I just don’t understand why….” you catch your breath, “it’s been the only book I liked …no, I loved… to teach.” You pause, ‘Why does it have to leave?” After all, you and the book have been together for school years. You […]
Posted inParents
When Your “Helicopter” Parent is a Teacher
I am enough years into teaching to have experienced a few of those parents. You know the type I mean: near daily notes, frequent phone calls and messages, surprise visits at school, requests for some special treatment or accommodation for their child, and occasionally an offering of personal information you might wish had never been […]