Last week school started and a whole new group of 8th graders filled the desks in my classroom. Besides talking about the syllabus, creating a social contract, and handing out all of the many things parents have to sign, my biggest goal was to get a book in the hands of each student. [bctt […]
Instruction & Curriculum
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Class Meetings: A Strategy to Deal With Disruptions to Your Classroom Aura
The school year is off to a great start. You’ve spent the first few weeks building relationships with your students and creating communities where students can share and feel safe enough to be themselves. Your students are learning about you and your teaching style, while you are learning about their individual learning styles. Everything is […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
What I Learned From My First Five Months of Being a New Teacher
by Javiera Green May 30, 2017, ended my first five months as an English educator. Upon starting my first job on January 4, I never thought the end of the year would come. I have learned so much, especially teaching Title 1 English to freshmen and sophomores. As a new teacher, nothing can prepare […]
Posted inHigh School
It’s Time to Build The Case for More Vo-Tech Classes
A recent PDK poll shows that 82% of Americans support job-skills classes, even if it’s at the expense of academic classes. Additionally, 86% believe schools should offer certificate / licensing programs that lead to jobs. But they’re forgetting one very big thing: this type of education already exists. It’s just that everybody forgets vocational-technical training. And […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Going Through a Divorce While Teaching? Here’s Some Steps to Overcoming
Imagine this. You work 60 hours a week as a teacher, full-time parent, and devoted spouse. You spend your nights grading papers, checking your kid’s homework and making sure your spouse is ready for their day at work. You operate like this for close to a decade until you come home and like a “smack […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
6-12 Classrooms That Will Rock Your Socks
In our first installment, we featured elementary classrooms that will literally “knock your socks off”! In this edition, we feature secondary classrooms that are not only cool but practical with a few trips to the Goodwill! Enjoy for your own planning. Click here for the next classroom.
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
A Talk To Teachers: This School Year, Let’s “Go for Broke”
“We are in a revolutionary situation, no matter how unpopular that word has become in this country. The society in which we live is desperately menaced, not by Khrushchev, but from within. So any citizen of this country who figures himself as responsible-and particularly those of you who deal with the minds and hearts of […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Social Emotional Learning: Can It Help Our Most Vulnerable Students?
Imagine you have a student who every time they get upset they decide to engage in some negative behavior that totally disrupts your class? Whether the behavior is yelling or banging their head on the desk, there’s an obvious need for a different approach to working with students who come to school with a myriad […]