Absolutely necessary; extremely important; crucial; necessary; key; vital; indispensable; needed; required; vitally important; critical; life-and-death; imperative; mandatory; compulsory; obligatory; compelling; urgent; pressing; burning; acute; paramount; preeminent;high-priority; significant; consequential. These words describe the word essential. Notice how many words are employed to define a single word. Anthropologists note that the higher a term is valued, the […]
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Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Up At Night, Thinking of My Students’ Well-Being – Here’s Why, and What We Can Do About It
I have a confession to make: since school doors have closed and education has moved online, I have slept terribly. Insomnia arouses my slumber around 2 or 3 a.m., and I tend to look at the ceiling for an hour before trodding downstairs for my first cup of coffee. What’s cajoling this 8th-grade teacher into […]
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 inInstruction & Curriculum, Principals' Corner
Is Adult Drama the Elephant in the Classroom?
Why teacher’s professional issues are more important than student’s concerns when building effective professional learning communities. By Laura D. Brown Learning Styles, Collaborative Learning, Project-Based Learning (PBL) — these are just three of the many instructional approaches that I have been trained to implement during my twenty-two-year teaching career. All of the above-mentioned approaches have […]
Posted inElementary School, The Student Teacher Diaries
Student Teaching Diaries: It’s Not Just Teaching
Teaching is more than lessons, assessments, and children. It involves extra work outside of the classroom. Seasoned teachers know there are many “extras” that come with the job. We attend board meetings, committee meetings, planning meetings, curriculum meetings, after-school clubs, summer school sessions, PTO and Site Council presentations, school plays and school-sponsored events outside of the 7:45-3:45 daily […]
Posted inFeatured, High School, Principals' Corner, Recruitment & Retention, Series, Uncategorized
Recruitment and Retention Part 2: To Keep the Best Educators, Focus on School Leadership First
[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”] I’m blessed to work at the Soulsville Charter School. Our parents are fantastic, our facilities first rate and our student’s motivated and hard working. Yet it would all fall apart were […]
Posted inFeatured, From the Front Lines, Uncategorized
4 Ways to Make Your PLC Meetings More Productive!
The quickest way to send any teacher into a frenzy is to make us sit in an ineffective PLC (professional learning community) meeting. We’d rather grade a million essays, meet with an irate parent or even hear nails scratched on our chalkboard–anything but another meeting that tells us how to use graphic organizers. After […]
Posted inFeatured, Opinion, The Unemployed Teacher
Courage to Teach—Touchstones
Our first meeting this school year (sometimes called Circle of Trust ®)was like a gathering of old friends. You know those friends you don’t talk with for eternity and when you see each other you pick up like no time has passed? We had lost a few members who had decided to continue the journey […]