A few days ago, I heard some loud noises coming from the room next door. It then turned to screaming. I briefly peered out into the hallway to see if it was under control, and a few teachers’ aides were helping to calm one of our autistic students. I revisited the classroom during lunch to […]
Opinion
Posted inInstructional Strategies
Seven Steps to a Fresh Start for your Class
You started off with the best of intentions—a clean desk, new notebooks, resolutions for the new school year—but things are already turning sour. Students aren’t working the way that you’d like them to, lessons have flopped, you are having discipline and classroom management issues. Your classes feel chaotic and out of control, and you are […]
Posted inFrom the Front Lines
How “Big Ed” Could Ruin America
There’s been much-to-do with EpiPens in the news these past few weeks. As the company Mylan has raised the price of the life-saving, anti-allergen medicine from $100 to $600, there have been more than 1,700 articles claiming everything it costs $30 to manufacture to denouncing the teachers’ union for being complicit in the calamity. Seriously. This […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
[Podcast S2E6] Are My First Amendment Rights Coming in Second?
During this episode, Franchesca Warren speaks to a long-time writer for The Educator’s Room and 7th-Grade History Teacher, Mr. Jake Miller, about our first amendment rights. Just last week, Jake wrote an article about first amendment rights entitled, “A Letter to My Students On First Amendment Rights” and it got me thinking- how can teachers approach subjects […]
Posted inBack to School
Small Things to Create a Great Community
At the end of last school year, after I informed my students that I would be leaving the district, they showered me with gratitude. They wrote notes; they gave speeches; they made a scrapbook; they spent money on gifts; they arranged parties with food; they collaborated with teachers and counselors to surprise me with a […]
Posted inFeatured
Proof of Civilization’s Decline? Teacher In-Services
“All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.” –Edward Gibbon Audacious barbarians at the gate do not always foretell a civilization’s decline. No, sometimes the changes are small and unspoken in a culture, manifesting themselves in the most surprising of places. Bemoaning a hollow cult of celebrity or decrying the perpetual […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
15 Years after 9/11: Days of Infamy & Memory as History
This week was the 15th Anniversary of 9/11. It has been filled with people remembering where they were and what they saw on September 11, 2001. This ritual will most likely repeat itself for many more years to come. There is finally a memorial and a place where the event is commemorated in New York City […]
Posted inOpinion
You Probably Shouldn’t Be a Teacher If…
I can’t imagine having any other job besides that of a teacher. In fact, I think it is the greatest job in the world. But I definitely had my moments when I doubted whether or not I had made the right choice. And I think that I worked with plenty of people who had made the […]