Education has slowly been changing over the last decade. Classrooms are becoming student-centered and the teacher’s role is changing. While I am very comfortable giving my students choice and voice in my classroom, sometimes I feel lost while they are working. What is my role? How do I know I am meeting their needs? How do […]
Instruction & Curriculum
Posted inConfessions of a Teacher
10 Thoughts During a Failed Lesson
Thought 1: “I like this lesson” It might not be my best, but I’m satisfied with it. It’s educational. It’s collaborative. There’s some entertainment value. It certainly is important to their lives and what we’ve been previously talking about. It’ll be successful. Thought 2: “What the h*#%! is going on here?!” It doesn’t seem like […]
Posted inAsk a Teacher
Using Current Events in Teaching the Executive Branch
As an eighth-grade civics teacher, I am about to start my unit of study on the Executive Branch. To be honest, I’m a little scared. Strike that. I am very scared. “Why are you scared, George?” you may ask. “If you stick to the facts, you’ll have nothing to worry about,” In normal times, I’d […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Student Activists Lead the Way
How the Parkland students became those activists Will it be student activists who force political action regarding gun violence in America? Maybe that’s exactly what this country needs. Mere days after the February 14th shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas School in Parkland Florida, Emma Gonzales, one of the student-survivors, was calling out politicians at a […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Do You Want Me To Carry a Gun? Teaching in a Time of Lockdowns…
“Do you want me to carry a gun?” The controversial question I ask my students the day we return after the mid-winter break. The responses vary each class block. Some kids, say “yes,” others giggle. Most shake their heads negatively. Each of my four sections of sophomore-level Global History is distinct in their desire to […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
The White Nationalist Teacher and The Implications For Other Teachers
A White Nationalist Teacher is Exposed On March 3rd, HuffPost reported on a Florida middle school teacher with a double life as the host of a white nationalist podcast. According to the article, “Dayanna Volitich, a 25-year-old social studies teacher at Crystal River Middle School in Florida, has been secretly hosting the white nationalist podcast […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Diverse Books to Read For Women’s History Month (K-5 Edition)
In 1987, Congress declared March as National Women’s History Month with loads of fanfare and every year since a special Presidential Proclamation is issued which honors the extraordinary achievements of women. However, how does that look in our classrooms? What books can we use to teach students about the extraordinary contributions of women in […]
Posted inElectives & Special Areas
Using Popular Music in the Secondary Classroom
Teachers born between 1950 and 1980 makeup both the baby-boom generation and those known as “Generation X.” The music with which they grew up is a reflection of the historical periods that produced it – Vietnam, the Cold War, the Fall of Communism, September 11, 2001, and the events that followed. Teachers of social studies […]