To track or not to track? Is that a question? Have I already lost you? Tracking has been a dirty word for decades. Mostly for good reason. But. Leveled classes might have a place. We all know that “tracking” happens when we offer advanced courses and co-taught sections. The limitations of scheduling mean groups of […]
effective teaching
Posted inTeacher Burnout
Teaching is Really all About Love
It took me years to embrace this truth: teaching really is all about love. To all those cynics who immediately say there is more to it: yes, of course, the skills of a teacher extend beyond the heart. But nothing matters without love. Why is this so hard to accept? Even those of us who […]
Posted inFrom the Front Lines
The Hardest Parts Of Teaching
These are the hard parts of teaching: Waking up from a nightmare where you’re out of breath and can’t find your classroom and are teaching in a foreign language to a group of kids who could care less about being there and you wonder, when you wake up, how that part of your fears will […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
How Response Notebooks Differ From Reading Logs
When I moved from teaching high school to teaching 8th grade English three years ago, I was introduced to an independent reading requirement: each student would read one book of their own choosing each quarter. How we chose to implement this requirement was up to the teacher, but each student had to produce a product […]
Posted inAsk a Teacher, Back to School, How to Fix Education, New Teacher Bootcamp, Parents, Technology, The New Teacher Chronicles
8 Ways For Teachers To Communicate With Parents in the 21st Century
In the 21st century, there is a multitude of ways to communicate with parents. I know a large part of the education workforce is comprised of ‘digital immigrants’, but with a little time and motivation, all teachers can (and should) utilize technology to increase communication with parents and students. Here are my eight favorite ways […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Why I Like to Start the Year with a Poetry Unit
Figuring out how to begin the school year can be intimidating. You’ll be setting the tone for the rest of the year, and you will never quite get the same amount of energy or hard work from your students as you do while the year is still fresh. (Ever notice that every single kid does […]
Posted inBack to School
First, We Must Educate The Heart
“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all” – Aristotle Teachers, have you thought about this challenge? How will you educate the heart this year? Childhood – especially the middle school years – can seem like a crazy-making manic time for kids. One minute they’re sweet young and innocent, most interested […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Embracing Questions: Why I Chose Inquiry Based Learning
Last fall, my principal kept preaching about Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and how the entire faculty should be changing our curriculum to fit this philosophy. Ineffectively for me, all of her examples were math and science related. Scouring the web didn’t inspire me either. My colleagues and I could not picture a way to completely rewrite […]