Enter the spoiler alert. Because the number of ways people hear about stories is increasing, spoiler alerts for books and films are offered as a “heads-up,” a means to prevent plot details from becoming public. Knowing the end of a story might mean that the strategy of “predicting” a story has been compromised. However, there are genres […]
Instruction & Curriculum
Posted inClassroom Management, Instruction & Curriculum
“Mom, I Mean Ms…” Classroom Management Ideas I Learned From My Mom
My mother is an amazing woman. She has a calm sense about her in every situation I have ever observed her in. She has four unique and different children she has watched struggle, grow, develop, fail and succeed. She is my center and what I strive to be. In the classroom, we are mothers to […]
Posted inElementary School, Featured, Instruction & Curriculum, Kindergarten, Technology
Paper or Paperless Classrooms?
Ready or not, my rural high school is preparing to deliver 1:1 iPads to our entire middle and high school populations next fall. Furtive conversations abound in halls and at lunch gatherings as we debate the possibilities and traditional needs of classroom learning. There has always been a fine line between reliance on products that facilitate […]
Posted inFrom the Front Lines, Instruction & Curriculum, Principals' Corner, Uncategorized
Put Administrators in the Classroom!
When anyone thinks of the job of a high school principal one may think of one who’s always in the patrolling the school’s hallway to catch students misbehaving, congratulating student athletes or assisting a teacher with a difficult students. We watch these images of administrators are all over classic movies such as cult classic, Ferris […]
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy
Interdisciplinary Approach for ELLs
The Common Core State Standards have demanded that we change the way we teach. With new standards and a new emphasis on college and career readiness that must be able to reach all students, as teachers we need to adapt. With so much to cover in one short (though it may not always feel like […]
Posted inFrom the Front Lines, Instruction & Curriculum
A Day In The Life of A Rural Classroom
Teaching in a small town has many perks. I am teaching in the room I learned in as a student. I know many of my families before they step through our classroom door the first day of school. Running errands around town brings smiles, hellos, hugs, and many quick conversations as I run into students […]
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum
Buy Us a Cup of Coffee!
On a daily basis I get an email inquiring how I’m able to run a site full of information that fully supports educators from across the world. While I could give some long, drawn out explanation but usually I just say, “It’s hard.” Everyday I get up and go and teach for 8.5 hours and […]
Posted inFeatured, High School, Instruction & Curriculum, Uncategorized
4 Rules for Working in a High Poverty Environment
My life changed forever when I decided to take a position as a teacher in the largest school district in Tennessee, Memphis City Schools. From the moment I took the position, I had people question if I was “ready” to work in an high poverty environment where many of the students came from backgrounds that […]