In Neurodiversity in the Classroom, best-selling author Thomas Armstrong continues to present concepts that stand to revolutionize the way students with learning disabilities are taught and thought of by educators. I am no stranger to Armstrong’s work and became a proponent of his as a young teacher when I read his work on multiple intelligences. […]
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Posted inFeatured, Middle School, Special Education, Uncategorized
Full Inclusion- an Individual Approach
As someone who has lived with the stigma of being labeled a student with a learning disability and the unique experience of having the honor to teach students with learning disabilities, I think I can share with you why inclusion is extremely important and why it’s not always about academic ability. Inclusion, according to […]
Posted inFeatured
Courage to Teach—Reflecting on Paradox in Teaching
Professional development is only as good as the level of understanding, application, and synthesis accomplished by the participants. You can learn an amazing amount of information, but if you do not apply this information, and internalize it to restructure your teaching, then it is time lost. The hour and a half spent monthly with my […]
Posted inCharter Schools, Current Events in Education, High School
Charter School Diaries No. 2 – Paying Attention to Our Work
This was pre-midterm week at school. Anxiety was indeed high among the students and also among the administrators within my building. This week, I took the opportunity to recap everything I possibly could with my students – stuff that we had learned in September all the way up to last week. I handed out study guides that my students […]
Posted inCharter Schools, Current Events in Education, Featured, High School, Opinion, Uncategorized
Charter School Diaries: The Sex Conversation- Episode 1
In an effort to help new teachers and to give a glimpse of what happens in the classroom, we are going to highlight one teacher’s experiences in a charter school. Recently, the Philadelphia School District has decided to provide many of its schools with condom dispensers due to what they call an epidemic. An impetus […]
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Special Education, Uncategorized
5 Ways to Boost Communication in a Co-Teaching Classroom
Recently I read somewhere that said, “Communication is easy.” I would love to know the world they lived in because communication isn’t easy- at all. Talking is easy; however, communication-which means an exchange or communion with another- requires greater skill. Communication requires us to listen and to speak skillfully, not just talk mindlessly. Communication among co-teachers is […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum, New Teacher Bootcamp
Sick and Tired – Staying Healthy During The School Year
I will admit that I have suffered far too many times with sickness in my years as a teacher. It seemed that whenever a student crossed my path I would inevitably catch whatever the little darling was carrying. Laughably, I can remember in my first year of teaching when I thought there was no possible way […]
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Opinion, Principals' Corner, Uncategorized
Use Your Holiday Break to Get Political
This summer at my first PSEA Summer Leadership Conference (our union getaway in Gettysburg, PA), I heard what was probably the most interesting speech in years. The president of Student PSEA, a college senior about to begin her student-teaching that fall, talked about politics and education. She said that, while in high school leading up […]