Love is a battlefield If “love Is a battlefield”, then the classroom is a tennis court! Cue Pat Benatar. We love our students, but not all of them the same—let’s just face it. That wouldn’t be fair to them; think about equality vs. equity. Love, of course, is shown in oh so many forms: romantic […]
Teacher Leaders
Posted inFrom the Front Lines
#MeToo – When Students Sexually Harass Teachers
In 2007, a black woman named Tarana Burke started the original Me Too movement. The Me Too Movement empowers victims of sexual assault and harassment to speak out in solidarity. In 2017, the movement gained steam when prominent white women began tweeting #MeToo and speaking out about their own stories of survival. Time Magazine even […]
Posted inTeacher Leaders
The Writing Gap: Why a Renaissance in Writing Instruction is Imperative
“Appositive?” “What is an appositive?” “Is that even a word?” These were snippets of conversations overheard in a teacher’s book study at Liverpool High School, a large, suburban school north of Syracuse, NY. The assembled teachers, from a variety of disciplines including World Languages, English, Social Studies, Science, Mathematics and Special Education, comprise a group studying […]
Posted inSocial Studies
Why I Teach
In my family, teaching has become a time-honored tradition. My mother taught English, French, and German to high school students. She was a dedicated minister’s wife until she died of brain cancer in 1984. I became a social studies teacher in 1983, so I am now in the middle of my third decade in education. […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Using Experts in My Classroom
When I think about using experts in the classroom, I think about an experience my fourth graders had last year. It was roughly a month into the school year. We had built a community of learning, but at the same time, we were still working on certain fundamentals like listening respectfully to the speaker. But […]
Posted inTeacher Leaders
15 Things My 2-Year-Old Taught Me This Year
A few weeks after my son was born in November 2015, I started thinking differently as a teacher. While I don’t think this applies to everyone, I feel like it did – and continues to – make me a better teacher. For the past two years I’ve shared lessons I’ve learned from him as a […]
Posted inTeacher Leaders
Communicating with Parents: Advice From a Teacher Who Is Also a Mother
This school year is a brand new experience for me as a mother and as a teacher. This is the first year where I am sending my five year old daughter off to a public school. I’m not going to lie, it’s been a difficult transition for her, and for me. But something happened her […]
Posted inTeacher Burnout
A Teacher’s Power of Positivity
I’ve spent enough times surrounded by negativity. I’ve gone the other way when the “negative teacher” walks down the hallway. I’ve watched people publicly belittle my profession and union over and again. I’ve led that union and had to open far too many negative emails of plea / help / disdain. I’ve hoped for that […]