Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! Imagine a substitute teacher dumping your desk drawers out on the top of your desk because they wanted to “reorganize it.” That is what happened to my cooperating teacher during my student teaching days. My cooperating teacher’s organizing skills […]
Middle School
Posted inClassroom Management
Why You Should Try a No Cell Phone Policy in Your Classroom
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! If you want to try an interesting experiment, ask your students to turn up the volume on their cell phones and tally how many times in a class period their cell phones signal an alert. We tried it a […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Why Transgender Students Need Teachers Who Aren’t Afraid
The battles taking place in the classroom in Virginia are at the core of what it means to be a teacher in American public education today. The debate over mask mandates, the US History curriculum, and how to meet the needs of LGBTQ+ students are all in the news today, with teachers and students in […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
“This Book Saves Lives!” Why You Should Teach The Stars Beneath Our Feet.
In my eighth-grade English Language Arts classroom, reading was an experience. It was an opportunity to connect, express, discuss, motivate, and debate. No book demonstrated this more than The Stars Beneath Our Feet by David Barclay Moore. There will be NO spoilers in this piece (well nothing that you can’t find out by reading the […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
How VH1 Inspired the Way I Taught Novels
Maybe my millennial is showing, but VH1’s “Watch and Discuss” campaign had an incredible impact on how I taught novels in my grade 8 standard ELA class. I wondered, what if I took the same concept and applied it to reading in English class? I made reading a novel as engaging as watching a VH1 […]
Posted inMiddle School
Our Middle Schoolers Deserve Better
Anyone who has taught middle schoolers can tell you – it is a time of abrupt and rapid change for students that can cause uncertainty, self-esteem lapses, and academic performance drops. For elementary schools, we see a lot of focus paid to their structure, pedagogy, and support, as is appropriate for foundational learning. On the […]
Posted inCOVID-19
When Teaching Middle Schoolers: The Most Asked Question is, “Are You Insane?”
“Oh, bless your heart!” “Do you enjoy torture and insane little heathens?” “You’d have to be crazy to teach that age group!” These are the questions other teachers ask me when they find out I actually enjoy teaching middle school. Those responses are what I usually hear when I tell people of my occupation, along with […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
TED Talks All Students Should See
I have lost many hours to the “suggested for you” videos listed on the right side of ted.com. There are times that I believe that their algorithm is broken . . . Really? Do you think I would be interested in “How I became part sea urchin”? More often, however, they nail it. Why, yes, […]