If I were to ask my middle schoolers what the hardest subject is for them, I can tell you right now, a majority (especially sixth graders), would say science. Even though my kids typically love science labs, they despise all of the reading that accompanies them. When I talk to students about what makes reading […]
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Posted inThe Traveling Teacher
The Traveling Teacher: China, Part I – Beijing
Ever since I proposed to my wife, I’ve dreamed of going to China. I’d wanted to visit there so badly that I even – get this – floated the idea of having our honeymoon there. So when the NEA Foundation awarded me with the Teacher of Excellence and Global Fellowship Awards and invited 49 other […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Making the Dual Language Decision
We all know that communicating with parents is essential to being an effective educator, but when the majority of your students speak a different language at home, it becomes frustrating to have to find a translator for every single phone call. I’ve also learned, after numerous confusing emails, not to completely trust Google Translate. I […]
Posted inHow to Fix Education
The STEM Revolution in Higher Education
I just got back from a fascinating conference about the state of STEM in U.S. schools, sponsored by U.S. News and World Report! I was compelled by the idea of a STEM revolution in higher education; as a middle school teacher, it really didn’t occur to me that colleges would be reacting in a similar […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
The Joys of Being a Teacher with Special Needs
by: Kathryn Garner My heart races on the first day of school as I project my “Meet Your Teacher” slideshow onto the SMART Board. The generic tidbits of personal trivia come first. I tell my students where I am from, what I like to do, and where I went to school. My new students look […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Stormy Weather :Navigating the Turbulent Seas of Adolescence in the Classroom
by: Caleb White Earlier today I checked the roll to see who’d be absent from my history class in the last period of the day. Nuts. It looked like close to a full complement, and this particular class has some challenging personalities. You know, the stoner, the loner, the clown, the jock. There are a handful […]
Posted inCommon Core
Teaching Writing With Hyperdocs
If you’re looking for a new approach to teaching writing, you’ve got to try teaching with hyperdocs. What are hyperdocs? According to their creators, Lisa Highfill, Kelly Hilton and Sarah Landis, hyperdocs are “a transformative, interactive, personalized engaging too to help facilitate student creativity and collaboration” (The Hyperdoc Handbook). And I can testify that hyperdocs […]
Posted inHigh School
13 Reasons Why: Conflicting Reviews
Jay Asher’s 13 Reason Why was the first young adult novel I read during my student teaching. When the librarian spoke to my freshmen about novels for a choice project, I was drawn to the premise of the story: Before completing suicide, a sixteen-year-old girl (Hannah) records the reasons for her choice on audiotapes and […]