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 […]
From the Front Lines
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 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 inAsk a Teacher, From the Front Lines, Middle School, Parents
Balancing Teaching and Mothering
I’ve always been a working mom. I guess I should qualify that – I’ve always been a work-outside-the-home mom. Since I was in my thirties before I had both children, I spent several years teaching before they rocked my world…and to be honest, it was a struggle to figure out how I could balance it […]
Posted inFrom the Front Lines, Instructional Strategies, Opinion
The Counter-Productivity of the Testing Mentality
The other day, I came to team planning with some really great exploration activities and math tasks for students to use to deepen their understanding of the concepts we were learning in class. As the person who writes the formal lesson plans for our department and a graduate student, I take my job seriously, and […]
Posted inClassroom Management, Current Events in Education, Featured, From the Front Lines, Opinion
Deskside Manner: What Teachers Can Learn From Doctors (Part I)
I recently missed a day and half of school for a bunch of medical appointments. As I sat in various waiting rooms, talked to a host of medical assistants, and shook hands with more than a few doctors, I realized something – we teachers have something to learn from the doctor-patient relationship. We need to […]
Posted inAsk a Teacher, Classroom Management, Current Events in Education, From the Front Lines
What Are We Teaching Teens About Making Excuses?
I get really tired of excuses. In fact, in my classroom when my 8th graders try to excuse their behavior, lack of homework, or unpreparedness I tell them kindly yet firmly, “Excuses are useless.” Initially quizzical looks form on their faces, and then they start to stammer…which is exactly when I interject my reasoning. […]
Posted inAsk a Teacher, Current Events in Education, Elementary School, Featured, From the Front Lines
The Hidden Emotional Labor of Teaching
It’s time for teachers to talk about our feelings Thursday morning I was called into a meeting unexpectedly and given the news that one of my students would probably not be returning to school this year. The news and the surrounding circumstances hit me with a wave of emotions. After discussing logistics such as how […]