Curating and cultivating mastery is like planting seeds in a garden; it requires patience, care, and a keen eye for nurturing potential. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires special education services to support learners in three specific areas: advanced educational opportunities, employment, and increased independence. As a special education teacher, As a Teacher of […]
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Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Is Public Education better off now than four years ago? The answer is complicated.
The looming presidential election this fall provides the kismet to see our last four years through the standard “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” while posing that same question to ourselves as public educators: Am I, as a teacher in America, better off now than I was four years ago? […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
The Scaffold and The Lift: Differentiation to support every student
In a single school day, teachers make approximately 1,500 decisions. If, in one 45-minute class period, a high school teacher makes roughly 218 decisions as they teach, then they have only a short window of time to create lesson plans, update grades, upload assignments, write emails, and perform other tasks that can distract attention from […]
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Unlock the Power of Data: Your invitation to a transformative virtual summit
Feeling frustrated with data in your classroom or school? Our upcoming virtual summit, Data in Education, is designed to change that. We’ll help you transform data from a source of stress into a source of power, leading to better teaching, improved student outcomes, and smarter decision-making. What to expect at the summit: Is this summit […]
Posted inAsk a Teacher
My relationship with AI…It’s complicated!
It has been over 2 years since ChatGPT launched, arguably bringing artificial intelligence (AI) into the mainstream. AI has rapidly evolved into a large collection of tools that address almost every aspect of teaching and learning. They can grade papers or provide individualized feedback, correct grammar, generate ideas for lessons, write standards-based assessments at every […]
Posted inBack to School
Using Thrity Umrigar’s novels to tackle summer reading apathy
One way I suggest engaging eleventh and twelfth-grade readers — especially for summer reading assignments — involves assigning modern novels outside of the traditional canon. Two books by Thrity Umrigar, The Space Between Us (2005) and Honor (2022) created a high level of engagement in my AP English Literature students at the onset of the […]
Posted inEnglish Language Learners
How to Navigate Censorship in a High School English Classroom
At a faculty meeting, a colleague once whispered to me, “So, what do you actually do in your English class if everyone already knows how to read and write?” Though it was an innocent enough question from a chemistry teacher, it brought me to the halting realization that the abstract nature of a high school […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Six Ways to Retain Teacher Autonomy
In the last post, we examined the role of rhetoric in our modern classrooms, and we discussed how to both detect it and filter it into categories that you can live with or live without. Once you become more adept at detecting rhetoric and categorizing it, you may be concerned about how it affects your […]