Dear new teacher, first-year teacher, education major, and everyone in between, Welcome to the world of teaching. We are excited you have chosen our profession. You must have had an amazing or several amazing teachers that inspired you to join our world. Make sure you tell them. We all need to hear that we made […]
High School
Posted inHigh School, Social Justice
Ethics in Education… Do We Still Have Them?
James Comer said, “No significant learning can occur without a significant relationship.” At a dinner party recently, some teacher friends and I were discussing inappropriate relationships between teachers and students. A non-teacher asked, “What’s going on between these teachers and students? How does THAT happen?” It piqued my curiosity; so I began to investigate the […]
Posted inHigh School, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy, Middle School
Literature Circles: Empowering Students
Ideally, by the fourth quarter, I want to be unnecessary in my classroom; I hope that my students are so self-sufficient that I can partner with them instead of lead and coach. To me, this idea is the mark of true learning; the control baton has passed from me to them. I need three-quarters to […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, High School, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy
There are Kinder Ways: Engaging Hesitant Students Pt. 2
Last Saturday, I watched my eight-year-old daughter melt into a weeping pile of helplessness. It was her baptism. My husband’s side of the family is Catholic, and a few months back, she expressed a desire to be baptized. Even though I am not Catholic, I supported her decision, and we put the wheels in motion. […]
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 inUncategorized
Love and Hate for the 5-Paragraph Essay
When I taught high school English, I worked hard to help my students avoid and move beyond the five-paragraph essay. In fact, I almost went crazy trying to pull better-than-five-paragraphs-essays out of my seniors. I was apt to tell students, “you are stuck in a five-paragraph box! GET OUT OF THE BOX!” I swore I would […]
Posted inHigh School, Instructional Strategies, Literacy, Social Studies, Technology
The Sensibilities of Mind Mapping
I was in attendance at a social studies department meeting reviewing how current curricula addresses Proficiency Based Graduation Requirements (PBGR). A disagreement occurred over the requirement of mental mapping as a performance indicator. Teachers accustomed to multiple choice and essay writing for common assessment could not discern what constituted a mental map. The recall of Venn diagrams, illustrated maps with inset boxes and character […]
Posted inFeatured, High School
Embracing Change: A Teacher’s Journey Across The Desk
When I began at my school in the fall of 2010, change was already in the pipeline. The school was in its fourth year, growing at breakneck speed, and poised to continue to change for the foreseeable future. I was brought on to teach most of our upper grade history courses. This included classes from […]