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 […]
Instruction & Curriculum
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 inInstruction & Curriculum
Gun Violence in America: 4 Ways To Talk About the Elephant in the Room
I woke up Monday morning to the horrific news of yet another mass shooting in America, this time in Las Vegas, where 59 people tragically lost their lives and more than 500 people were injured in an act of senseless gun violence. When I sat down to write today, I was hoping to come up […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Copying the Nation’s Founding Documents by Hand
There are different ways to become familiar with our nation’s founding documents: reading, memorizing, studying, reciting are a few. But in our keyboard- swipe-click-centered world, rewriting by hand is not one that immediately comes to mind. A story featured in the NYTimes The Constitution, By Hand (6/30/17) written by Morgan O’Hara explained her process for […]
Posted inBook Review
Book Review: The Smartest Kids in the World
The inside cover of Amanda Ripley’s book asks the question, “What’s it like to be a child in the world’s new education superpowers?” – namely South Korea, Poland, and – yes, of course – Finland. To accomplish this, she follows the lives of three separate American teens who serve as foreign exchange students there. In […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Hiding in the School Building: Why Lockdown Drills Suck
We had our first lockdown drill today. For anyone unfamiliar with these drills, it’s practice for not if, but when we have an armed intruder in our school. It involves hiding all students away from any windows or doors and locking them in a secure place. If I am being completely honest, these drills make […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
The Value of Boredom: Overscheduled Kids and the Destruction of Childhood
A common conversation among parents: “What fall sport is Sara playing?” “Oh, y’know, the usual. Sara plays field hockey from 3:30-5:30 Monday through Thursday, with games on Fridays. She takes piano lessons Tuesday evening, and voice lessons on Thursdays. On Monday and Wednesday nights, she sees her math and English tutor. We leave the weekends […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Elementary School Resources to Support #Dreamers
Last week Donald Trump made good on yet another one of his campaign threats, and effectively ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program. As you’ve probably already heard, this will end the ability for almost 800,000 young people in the United States to go to work, school, and live, out from the […]