Let’s start talking about shared core values, not common standards, please. My colleagues, my students, their parents, my own children… none of them are “common” or “standard.” This sentiment isn’t new to anyone who is serious about education and has done it for any length of time, or to anyone who has children of their […]
Opinion
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Instructional Strategies, Opinion
There Are Kinder Ways: Engaging Hesitant Students
Every now and again we have class periods that make us happy. The fun ones, during which everyone is engaged in the lesson, the room is filled with an infectious energy, and at the end you are sure that everyone, or at least nearly everyone, got the point. I had one of these classes recently. […]
Posted inOpinion
Redefining Education
I’m a big picture sort of person. I like to think about the larger scope of things and how the here and now feeds into the larger scheme of things. Sometimes this is a huge curse, seeing as how I live somewhat in a fairytale-type of mentality most of the time. Yet I have been […]
Posted inClassroom Management, Featured, Opinion
I Make Students Cry
“No! You can’t do this to me!” Anyone that has taught an honors student has heard these words at least once in their teaching career. This particular student had a “B” on her report card. She plagiarized an essay and I gave her a zero. A college-bound senior knows better… or should know better. I […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, Opinion
What The Future, America?!
Nineteen years of education have enabled me to watch the pendulum swing back and forth a few times. We have gone from grouping to whole class to differentiation. Methods and techniques come and go, each time reintroduced with a new twist. So many things in education recycle themselves and each time educators are ignored as […]
Posted inFeatured
Why I Teach
By Guest Writer Amanda Elizabeth Austin, Ed. D The moment I knew I was going to become an educator was when I got to experience a service learning course during my last year of college where I volunteered my time at a local elementary school. This school was located in an area, which was considered […]
Posted inFrom the Front Lines, Instructional Strategies, Opinion
The Counter-Productivity of the Testing Mentality
The other day, I came to team planning with some really great exploration activities and math tasks for students to use to deepen their understanding of the concepts we were learning in class. As the person who writes the formal lesson plans for our department and a graduate student, I take my job seriously, and […]
Posted inClassroom Management, Current Events in Education, Featured, From the Front Lines, Opinion
Deskside Manner: What Teachers Can Learn From Doctors (Part I)
I recently missed a day and half of school for a bunch of medical appointments. As I sat in various waiting rooms, talked to a host of medical assistants, and shook hands with more than a few doctors, I realized something – we teachers have something to learn from the doctor-patient relationship. We need to […]