Could podcasts kill the video star? “What the ____ is a podcast?” An eleventh-grade student who would go on to be accepted at an Ivy League school asked this question in response to my question: “OK, guys, how do y’all feel about creating a podcast?” Don’t get the idea that this interaction took place “back […]
effective teachers
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Three Tips on How to Create an Engaging Lesson Plan
Need tips on how to make an engaging lesson plan? The truth is, it’s easier than you may think. There are only three key elements necessary to make a lesson plan exciting. Interested to know what the three key components are? Drum roll, please….Here they are: make learning fun, relatable to students’ lives, and give […]
Posted inHow to Fix Education
PBIS, Restorative Justice, AVID: One Size Does Not Fit All
One of the most maddening parts about being in education is watching programs and systems be implemented in different school environments with absolute fidelity. Countless schools have attempted to and failed to bring PBIS, Restorative Justice, AVID, and even different LMS to their campus in an effective manner. While looking for the easy way out […]
Posted inAsk a Teacher
Dear First Year Teacher: This Is a Time Like No Other
It’s been nineteen years since I walked into my first classroom, but I remember it like yesterday. It was a small private school on the far south side of Chicago. The school had little money, I was the only English teacher for 9-12 grade, and my 80+ students came from a whole range of experiences and socio-economic circumstances.
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
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
The Echo of a Student’s Voice Pt. 2
I taught an 8th-grade writing class my first year of teaching. The standards allowed for 3 essays: one argumentative, one informative essay, and one narrative. A narrative essay was a strange name for a short story to me. I didn’t entirely understand the difference until I investigated the goals of the narrative essay standard. The […]
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 […]