I was gone two days this week because my fiancé had back surgery. Two. Whole. Days. This may not seem like much to most, but I teach special education with some very routine-oriented students and this was a huge whammy in their little lives. I know we want our classrooms to become autonomous and for [...]
There was a sub for one of my paras a couple of weeks ago and she set up shop in my classroom. We went through the day as usual, with her thoroughly enjoying her role after being out of the classroom for the past few years. At the end of the day, as I was [...]
We are always challenging students to think differently: branch out, think outside the box, get out of their comfort zone. As a social studies teacher, I’m often trying to incorporate issues and ideas into our study or conversations that are relevant to students’ lives; things they may be facing now or will likely deal with [...]
Last year I revisited James Baldwin’s “A Talk to Teachers” before starting the school year. I encouraged myself and other teachers committed to social justice to “go for broke.” I did lots of work I felt proud of in our classroom last year, working with our 5th graders to understand, analyze, and combat racism. They culminated [...]
In the wee hours of this morning, another of my 24-year-old son’s friends killed himself. I say another because the first one was about a year ago. Two close friends in two years. Here at The Educator’s Room, we constantly talk about self-care. We constantly are saying how important it is to take care of ourselves [...]