In this month’s #InspirationalEducator Series, Jake Miller sat down with someone who isn’t necessarily an “educator” by trade. Ms. Valerie Hegarty is an artist who focuses in educational aspects, namely history, and her thoughtful, incredible, outside-the-box 3-D art caught the eye of this social studies teacher. He found more information about her online and decided […]
common core
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy
Celebrate National Poetry Month – Summarize With a Poem
Teachers of all subjects, grades, and walks of life Don’t treat poetry like you’re holding a knife! This is Poetry month – help it to come alive By using poetry to summarize! How can you use poetry in class this month? Just a few suggestions: Have students work vocabulary words into a poem Have students […]
Posted inCommon Core, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy
Hate the Language of the Common Core? Blame the Adverbs (Angrily)
[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”] I believe the author Stephen King would hate the language of the Common Core State Standards for one reason: unnecessary adverbs. His book On Writing has a section devoted to explaining why The adverb is […]
Posted inCommon Core, Current Events in Education, Opinion
The Coming Catastrophe in Education
Thought experiments are employed throughout the academic world, from mathematics and quantum mechanics to philosophy and economics. But rarely are they used in the world of education. And yet, like a gathering storm whose birth pangs only emit a gentle and benign breeze, there are early signs that American public education is possibly starting down […]
Posted inFeatured, High School, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy, Middle School, Uncategorized
My Son Only Read One Book in Middle School
This morning as I helped my son organize his bookshelf I asked him a question that came over me as I looked over his Diary of a Wimpy Kid series on his shelf, “what books did you enjoy most while in 6th and 7th grade?” He looked up at me like only a middle school […]
Posted inCommon Core, Instruction & Curriculum, Middle School, Uncategorized
Perplexed in CT by Recommendations for EngageNY Curriculum
Perplexed: adj. 1. bewildered; puzzled. 2. complicated; involved; entangled. (o _ 0 ) ? I am perplexed as to why this word is on the EngageNY first grade vocabulary list, and again perplexed when I review the first grade units for English Language Arts (ELA) on this website. I am perplexed because I can see that several units in our […]
Posted inFeatured, Interviews, School Improvement
Inspirational Educators: Jeff Charbonneau, 2013 National Teacher of the Year
[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”] Jake Miller, writer for The Educator’s Room, recently sat down for his 2nd installment of his Inspirational Educator series. This month’s honoree was 2013 National Teacher of the Year Jeff Charbonneau (@JeffCharboneau), […]
Posted inEducational Apps, From the Front Lines, Instruction & Curriculum
Pioneering 1:1 iPads Meets Resistance?
It is risky business, changing everything you teach and control in order to move towards a tech heavy classroom. I am one week into a 1:1 iPad rollout for all of the juniors and seniors at our rural high school. We are the last assigned group in our school wide transition to 1:1 iPads that […]