Last October, I told my boss that I was pregnant. Naturally, he asked about the due date. When I said that the baby was due two weeks after school ended, he said, “Perfect timing!” I sighed relief. When I was pregnant with my first child, my principal was not supportive; she suggested that I intentionally […]
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Posted inElementary School
Teach From the Heart
1 Samuel 16:7: “The Lord does not see what man sees. While man looks at the outward appearance, the Lord looks at the heart.” Teaching is personal. Teaching is tireless and endless. We get the best gift a parent can give us, their child, and we are trusted to move them forward on their path […]
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, […]
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The Struggle Is Real: Teacher Physical Wellness
Thanks to Facebook, everyday I am reminded of past posts. Being the beginning of the school year, most of my old posts are pictures. Wow, was that me as a freshman in college? Pictures of me disappear shortly after my teaching career began. Maybe it’s due to time or the lack of anything Facebook worthy. […]
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Unnecessary Tasks of the Teacher
The law is changing for the college administrator; under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the institution must provide overtime compensation for some administrators (based on annual salary). Since my salary is below the benchmark, I will be compensated for any work over 40 hours a week. During a staff meeting, my director asked us […]
Posted inHow to Fix Education, Uncategorized
Race and Racisim in the Classroom: 3 Ways to Start a Difficult Conversation
Recently I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, writing and talking about how to discuss race and racism in a classroom setting. As an elementary school teacher, one of the first challenges I have to overcome is convincing people that we should even try to do this. Understandably, a lot of people worry about “exposing” […]
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A Teacher Requests Her Students Not To Be Tested
I have had the immense fortune of being able to be in front of children in many different capacities for 25 years. It truly humbles me to know that for 25 years, parents have trusted my professionalism, training, care, creativity, and judgment when it comes to their children. My experiences include both regular/general education, and […]
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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 […]