This is Part 1 of a series on effective literacy instruction Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! My fondest memories of teaching first grade were watching my students grow as readers and feeling pure joy when they accomplished their reading goals. Every September you are […]
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Posted inHistory
History Matters in Schools. Here’s How I Taught it in my English/Language Arts Classroom
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! Early in my teaching career, I attended a challenging and eye-opening conference on Holocaust education hosted by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. I had taught Holocaust literature since the beginning of my career, anchoring most of my Holocaust units in […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
What Teachers Can Learn from an Afghan American Student Living in America
Teaching in Pinole, California over the past twenty years, I can count on one hand the students of Afghan descent I have encountered, let alone taught. As I watched what was unfolding in Afghanistan in the first few weeks of August of 2021, my first thoughts went to my current Afghan student who I have been blessed to know for the past four years. I had her sister in previous years as well. My mind also went back to my first Afghan family from over a decade ago, wherein I also had two of their three sisters. I became close with their families and stay connected to this day.
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Throw Your Perfect Attendance Award Away
When I reflect on my teaching career I am saddened by how much I put my attendance above my mental and physical health. Here are some examples. I wrote sub plans on the bathroom floor at three in the morning after bouts of diarrhea and chills. I screamed at an urgent care doctor, “Are you […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Why I Left Teaching and Then Went Back For My Son
After twelve years of teaching, I decided to walk away. I had enjoyed teaching for many years but was ready to take on a leadership role in education and put my recently earned master’s degree to work. I had spent the last three years of my teaching career searching for an assistant principal job with […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Creating a Trauma-Sensitive Classroom Part 2
Are you frustrated and worn out at the end of the day? Do you feel like you give everything you have and the children just don’t appreciate it? Does the next break from school look too far away for comfort? My mother taught for a total of fifty years, and, in those years, she speaks […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Want the Best Instructional Feedback? Ask Your Students.
There came a time in my teaching career where I had to ask myself whose opinion about my instruction matters more: the administrator who comes to my classroom maybe four times per year or the students with me for 180+ days? When I started implementing the instructional feedback from my students, my instruction and student […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Reassessing How We Test: A Pandemic Proof Call for Action
“Will this test even count?” One of my students unmuted briefly on Zoom to ask about the impending end-of-year state assessments. A normally reticent child who preferred clicking his responses away in the chatbox, spoke up confidently now as if on behalf of the whole class. I stammered my way through a response that sounded […]