Tomorrow morning I’ll bike to school like I always do. I’ll park by my classroom, unlock the outside door, and head into the indoor hallway. I’ll hear other English teachers leading their lessons, and I’ll peek inside to see the 7th grade faces. As I near my classroom, I’ll hear the chatter from the Spanish […]
Middle School
Posted inCommon Core, Current Events in Education, Instruction & Curriculum, Middle School, Uncategorized
Why Data is Important
There were eight of us gathered together early Wednesday morning: 8th grade teachers of History, English, PE, Math, Science, Spanish, a para educator and a counselor. Our task? Analyzing data from last year’s SBAC scores. To three in the group, this was an impossible task. Immediately the environment became toxic. “Maybe you like data, Jennifer, […]
Posted inCommon Core, Featured, Instruction & Curriculum, Middle School
Creating Utopia: How Kids See The World
This month, my students are learning to see the differences in the world. They’re reading The Giver, a dystopian novel written by Lois Lowry  in the 1990s. The Giver relates the story of Jonas, a 12 year-old boy living in a community of sameness, a community in which there is no color, no differences, no […]
Posted inFeatured
Why I Read To Eighth Graders
They have to read on their own. You should be assigning reading and having them read it, not reading it all to them. That’s spoon-feeding. I have heard this for the past thirteen years I’ve been teaching. When I taught high school English, I would read The Odyssey aloud to my ninth graders,  The Great Gatsby to my […]
Posted inFeatured, Middle School, Parents
Parent Tips: 8 Steps For Surviving Middle School
Middle school can be the most confusing time for students and parents in their educational career.  Everything ‘known’ about school is shifting, and hormones are often kicking into gear at the same time.  Students want more independence, and parents want to do the right thing.  Instead of letting teens ‘sink or swim’, try a more […]
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Middle School, Opinion
Thoughts on Grading Part 1: To Give or Not to Give a Zero
A couple of weeks ago, I went to a district meeting, and we discussed grading, which is a sensitive subject. While we all grade differently, teach different ways and teach different grade levels (6th-12th), there is one element we all agree on- secondary students are not turning assignments in when they are due. I cannot […]
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Mathematics, Middle School
Math Teachers: Thinking Outside the Algorithm
Middle School math can be frustrating and challenging, especially when the teacher feels that in addition to reaching their own learning milestones, they must backfill the deficits students have when they enter the classroom. Â As an educator I have always believed that part of my job was to take my students as far as […]
Posted inCommon Core, Featured, Instruction & Curriculum, Middle School
Are You Using Interactive Student Notebooks? You Should Be!
Teaching full-time English and AVID found me drowning in papers – you know the feeling? A weekly stack of hundreds of papers to check off or grade left me frustrated, tired and unhappy most weekends. In an attempt to cut down on the overwhelming, mind-numbing amount of papers submitted to me by my middle school […]