Students each wearing matching uniforms calmly making their way to classes. Classes full of well-behaved, eager-to-learn children. Or classes full of snobby, entitled students daring you to challenge them. The latter are some of the ideas – albeit – mostly wrong I’ve had about private schools in my hometown and in general. Last Spring, I […]
Instruction & Curriculum
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Organic Diversity is Needed in Schools
People are like plants. They need the proper climate to grow, and no two plants share the exact same ideal for quality conditions. Students are the same in this individual need for a particular climate. Like an Aspen tree planted in the desert of Arizona, we should not expect students to flourish in environments that […]
Posted inMental Health
First-Year Teachers: Raise Your Hand If You’ve Been Bullied Too.
By Lanee Higgins Teachers should share our workplace bullying experiences in shouts instead of whispers, but I understand why we don’t. Seven years ago, I kept a record of the workplace bullying that I endured as a first-year teacher in 2014. Seven years later, rereading it leaves my stomach full of needles, my thoughts racing, […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Teachers Have the Right to Rest: From One Burned Out Teacher to Another
By: Geena Bergen Geena is a teacher and advocate for teachers’ health and wellbeing. After completing her degree in Elementary Education & Psychology with a concentration in Early Childhood Education from Rider University, Geena taught 2nd grade in public school for 7 years. This summer, she transitioned to virtual teaching to have more time to dedicate to diving […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
The Future Is Co-Teaching
What do the names Costello, Teller, and Pepa have in common? They are incomplete on their own. Abbott doesn’t exist without Costello, Penn without Teller, and Salt without Pepa. The success of these dynamic duos stems from their harmony together. One does not exist at the same level of greatness without the other’s contribution. Few […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Waging a More Civil War on Our Campuses is the New Norm
Waging a More Civil War on Our Campuses In my second year of teaching, I made the mistake of reading a book about a boy who was secretly a wizard to my class. The next afternoon, I found the back of my head scraping the bulletin board as a mother screamed, cursing me and Satan […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Education Challenges Turn into Advantages in a Rural Community
Challenges that seemed to be disadvantages in a rural community become advantages by pushing the teachers to find ways to give students opportunities to explore the world and expand their worldview.
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
In Defense of Defending the Literary Canon
B.H. James is the author of Parnucklian for Chocolate and co-author of A Sea of Troubles: Pairing Literary and Informational Texts to Address Social Inequality and of Method to the Madness: A Common Core Guide to Creating Critical Thinkers through the Study of Literature. He has taught English at Franklin High School in Stockton, CA since 2006. Every May, I […]