“You sound like my mom.” If I had a dollar for every time a student said that to me, I would probably be rich enough to retire early! I used to laugh when students called me a “Mama Bear”, and smile at some who still call me “Auntie” to this day. These days, I embrace […]
Instruction & Curriculum
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Teachers Didn’t Sign Up for This
It’s 11:49 pm on Tuesday night at my house. The kitchen is clean. The house is locked up. The kids are asleep, my dog is asleep, and for once, I can sit down and hear the sounds of nothing in my house. Yet, as I finally sit down in my recliner to try and grade […]
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Why Race? Why Mathematics? Listening and Learning with Black Mathematics Teachers
Authors: Toya Jones Frank, Jenice View, Marvin Powell, and Jay Bradley. “I’m a math teacher,” but [administrators and other teachers] don’t look at me as a math teacher because of who I am… [S]o that speaks volumes about what the rest of the country must think as well. (Asa, middle school mathematics teacher) This quote […]
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Hit a Homerun Focusing on Student Learning Styles This School Year
Since 1997, Lauren Ewe has been teaching a wide array of diversified learners in secondary settings. Her current position as an educator is in higher education, instructing prospective teachers about the fundamentals of classroom management, time management, lesson planning, grading, and field-placement responsibilities during clinical internships. She also works as an education coach offering novice […]
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The NFL Ain’t Got Nothin’ on Me
Christy Wopat is a veteran educator and the author of the award-winning memoir, Almost a Mother: Love, Loss, and Finding Your People When Your Baby Dies, as well as a picture book titled Always Ours, released in May of 2020. She currently teaches 4th-grade and lives in Holmen, Wisconsin. Find her on Facebook at Um, […]
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Being a First-Year Teacher During COVID Was Hard, But I Survived
By: Nicole Sanderford I never wanted to be a teacher. Those around me always said, “Teachers don’t make any money,” or “Teachers hate their job.” I didn’t give a second thought to it. Of course, we all have a plan and somewhere out there, someone says, “HA! Guess again!” to that plan. Well, I went […]
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To Stop Student Suicides, We Must Prioritize Mental Health
I thought I would recognize the signs. I didn’t. My student, Rachel*, was fifteen years old. Although some things set her apart from her peers (she was an immigrant and spoke English as a second language), she was in many ways a typical teenager. She loved music, wore glittery t-shirts, and enjoyed laughing with her […]
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Ordering Experience: Transitioning into a Successful September Through Lyrical Poetry
by Melissa Bryan Transitioning Into September Last week, in an online educational leadership course I attended, we viewed a scene from the film Invictus. In it, Nelson Mandela (played by Morgan Freeman) explains to pro-Rugby player Pienaar (played by Matt Damon), what helped him survive imprisonment. Nelson relates that a poem, “Invictus” by William Ernest […]