My blood was boiling… my fists were balled up… my gut wanted to yell, “Let’s take this behind the barn!!!” She was in my face, screaming. We were standing in the front office with students, parents, and other teachers trying not to stare, without much success. I stood there because I wanted to hear her […]
Professional Development
Posted inHow to Fix Education
Know Your Teacher Worth
I have an absolutely amazing older son. When my ex-husband left, Eli was there to help pick up the pieces. When I had my emotional collapse, again Eli came to the hospital everyday and even now continues to keep a close eye on me. He and I are never far from one another, with healthy […]
Posted inProfessional Development
Travel for the Teacher: Better than Professional Development
As I write this, my family and I are preparing for a long voyage overseas. A few months ago, I learned that I had been accepted to the Disquiet International Literary Program in Lisbon, Portugal. This series of workshops with famous writers is held in one of Europe’s most historic and beautiful cities. Perhaps even […]
Posted inAdult Learning
Should You Adjunct Teach? A Checklist for Potential Part-time Professors
Let’s not kid ourselves: The college classroom is a very different world than secondary teaching, as it should be. The material taught there is more rigorous, the students are more independent, and there is far less supervision of teaching practice, among other contrasts. The assumption at good colleges is this: If you’re proficient enough to […]
Posted inFeatured
Using Open Classes in OUR Classrooms
I love to learn. I would be the person in college for the rest of my life if I could fit it in with everything else I do. So when I came across Harvard’s open classes, I was in heaven. Several universities, many Ivy League, offer open classes that are free online and can be […]
Posted inFeatured, Professional Development
The Teacher Edrepreunur: Potential Book Writers BEWARE!
“Love words, agonize over sentences. And pay attention to the world.” — SUSAN SONTAG This will be the shortest column I ever post. But it is important to make the following observation: When I was a child I used to believe that the people who wrote books were somehow members of an exclusive club, a […]
Posted inUncategorized
Who Will Care for the Teachers?
When I sat down to write this piece, my purpose was to scribe a thinly veiled, autobiographical accounting of my own experience of surviving the middle school classroom while I struggled with depression. However, wanting to avoid the cathartic-memoir trope, I planned to include information on the prevalence of depressive disorders among classroom teachers .I […]
Posted inUncategorized
Mini Thought Bubble on Performance Assessments
I recently returned from the Deeper Learning conference for educators in California with my mind imploding from an abundance of ideas. The three-day conference hosted at High Tech High in San Diego presented a broad exploration of equity framed in student experiences that shape education today and tomorrow. Usually, my conference euphoria ends up like a dusty book on […]