In a recent NPR piece interviewing author Alex Wagner, she stated: “I think we do a lot of work in this day and age focusing on the future and on the past….we don’t invest enough in the present.”[i] Wagner was talking about her exploration of her genetic backstory, but the fact is, we focus on […]
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The Facets of Personality and Successful Teaching
Anyone who has ever been a cooperating teacher for an up-and-coming student teacher knows how difficult it can be to evaluate one’s protege negatively. As I observed my student teacher. I am inspired to evaluate my own teaching style and the elements of my personality that go into my efforts to be a master teacher. […]
Are Elementary Teachers Jacks of All Trades or Masters of None?
Recently, I was facilitating a discussion with high school teachers about Kylene Beers book When Kids Can’t Read What Teachers Can Do – A Guide for Teachers 6-12. In chapter four, Beers explained that one of her students did not understand how to find the main idea and that she did not do a good […]
Test Scores > Hungry Kids? PA Teacher Fired for Making Pancakes
Welcome to 2018, where schools are permitted to hold pep rallies for students to “get them excited” about standardized tests (like that ever worked!?), but if a teacher makes his students – 95% of whom are free and reduced lunch – pancakes during the tests, that leads to him being fired. Seriously. This isn’t an […]
The New Teacher Chronicles: The Benefits of Cross-Curricular Education
With the school year beginning to wind down, I’ve been thinking of new ways to improve and update my curriculum for next year. What are some things that worked really well, and what are some things that I want to update? This got me thinking of ways to make my lessons even more hands-on and […]
Educators React to the March for Our Lives
Young People Take the Lead On March 24, 2018, in the wake of the February 14, 2018, school shooting in Parkland, Florida, anti-gun violence marches were held in the nation’s capital and around the globe. A record 800,000 attended the DC march, coordinated and led in large part by the students who survived the Parkland […]
An Act Declaring April the Worst Month to Teach
AN ACT DECLARING APRIL “THE WORST MONTH TO TEACH” Be it enacted by The Educator’s Room Readers and Writers: Whereas, by now, students and teachers have shared on average 130 classroom days together; Whereas teachers have hit the “survival mode button” more times than Staples customers have hit the “That Was Easy” button; Whereas students […]
Theatre Education: What TV Gets Right…and What it Gets Wrong
I am writing this immediately following watching the first episode of Rise, a new series about a high school English teacher, Lou Mazzuchelli (played by Josh Radnor), who is achieving his dream of directing the school musical. It opens with him convincing his wife he needed to do this (just like in Glee) and then […]