She was running late for the departing Friday bus. I saw her as she laid there on the floor, sobbing, as other staff members patiently held 100 buses to send the nearly 800 students home for the weekend. “I want my mommmmmmy!” She wailed, with the tears waterfalling down her face. Here lay the sister of […]
Principals’ Corner
Principals.
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
Initiative Overload: A Teacher’s Harsh Reality
“What do you do, as teachers, to take care of your students?” Hands went up throughout the room. My colleagues and I, at the school where I have been teaching for the past 15 years, were attending a CPI session on non-violent crisis prevention and intervention. After a brief discussion, the session coach then asked, […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
When You Deserve a Promotion
Last week, I sat down with some college friends of mine and as we discussed our families, our professional lives, and our hopes we came across the topic of career advancement. Two of my friends talked about a recent promotion in which both of them gloated on the bonuses they received from “closing” a major […]
Posted inHow to Fix Education
What I Hope for The Educator’s Room in 2017
Exactly 54 months ago, I made the decision to create a space for educators where we could laugh, debate and share about what really happens in the classroom. For months I did all of the obligatory things to make sure that I could secure a strong “debut”. I secured a name for the site (alas […]
Posted inProfessional Development
A Broken Teacher Evaluation System
About this time last year, I comforted a co-worker after her first post-observation “conversation.” The principal had berated her without allowing my co-worker to defend her lesson plan. Just a few weeks earlier, I had been the target of a post-observation meeting. The principal claimed that my lesson plan was ineffective and not “best practices,” even […]
Posted inInstructional Strategies
How to Apply The New American Lecture to Mathematics
While it is important to gain the attention of students through activities that create opportunities for learning, sometimes lectures are necessary to help students connect prior knowledge to what they need to learn, and the New American Lecture is designed to teach students in a way that provides them with opportunities to interact with the […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Who Will Care for the Teachers: A Podcast on Teacher Depression
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and older, or 18% of the population. During this episode, Franchesca Warren breaks tradition and talks with not one but four fellow teachers who suffer from […]
Posted inTeacher Leaders
150 Articles Later: A Reflection on My Time at The Educator’s Room
In October 2012, my local newspaper published “Exhaustion of the American Teacher” by John Kuhn. I remember reading the article once. Twice. Four-hundred times. It simply spoke every frustrated, burnt out end of my professional being. If you haven’t read it yet, please stop reading this article and go there. So, like any curious reader, […]