The students have begun to disappear. In the beginning of the school year, when class began every day, I was greeted with a friendly mosaic of smiling teenage faces. This was the beginning of their senior year of high school, and while no one wanted it to commence with the assistance of Zoom and Google […]
Instruction & Curriculum
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Teaching with Integrity: “Politics” in English Class.
Reading the News One of the things I love most about teaching English is the broad range of source material I can pull from. I love lesson planning and I dislike being bored, so my teaching is constantly in flux. My students read novels, analyze popular song lyrics, write poetry, watch Ted Talks, and everything […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
9 Growing Gaps in Education Are A Learning Lesson for All
I read the news regularly and work diligently at having a solid give-and-take, reciprocal relationship with my students, but these 9 growing gaps in education have been quite a learning lesson for me. Our atypical 2020 school year (with hybrid/online learning and mask-wearing) has most certainly highlighted in ways I cannot ignore. 1. THE HAVE […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
I’m a Teacher and I’m Counting down the Days until my School Shuts Down
I want to start this article with a confession: I’m counting down the days till when my school finally shuts down. No seriously, every morning as I sit at my desk in my classroom, I immediately check off another day on my calendar signifying another day that has passed in which I’ve physically been teaching […]
Posted inTeacher Self Care
Don’t Read the Comments: Digital Teacher Self Care
Everyone knows you don’t read the comments on Twitter. An adorable video of a dog skateboarding can instantly turn sour when unleashed on the internet. Facebook lets users publish a staggering amount of misinformation, which is especially frightening in a contentious election season. And every teacher knows that, like Yelp reviews, students only evaluate in […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Teachers Must Be Better Leaders! Less Planning and More Testing!
It’s three weeks into virtual teaching, and I’m already tired of the first unit on Economic Theory. Being a few days behind coupled with the fact that the next unit on Personal Finance is far more exciting and interesting, I’m just going to give the unit 1 test on Economic Theory this week. In the […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Opinion: The Self-Indulgence of Blaming Others…Even in Education
You can tell a great deal about a person by listening to—or, in our era of online posting, reading—their thoughts about who is to blame for troubles in the world. We all have troubles to process, after all, both real and perceived, and the temptation to find a scapegoat for every imperfection we see is […]
Posted inDo The Work
Is it Time to Kill Mockingbird and Embrace Mercy?
Is it Time to Kill Mockingbird? Until recently, To Kill A Mockingbird was one of few classics I actually liked. I’ve usually pushed back against the canon, but I could get behind a story about a precocious young tomboy who helps her father fight against racial injustice. But, as I read it once again with […]