I never found school boring when I was in high school. Challenging and frustrating? Yes, but never boring. So it always comes as a bit of a shock to me when students tell me how boring they find their high school classes today. The interesting thing about boring, of course, is that boring tends to […]
professional development
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Valuable Lessons from an Extremely Bad Professional Development
You know that something has gone wrong in a professional workshop when the experience starts to feel disrespectful. I sat in a workshop today from 9 am to 3 pm about a new math curricular resource. Approximately an hour and a half into the workshop, I started to feel pretty angry, because the training was […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
What Teacher Choice in PD Should Look Like
We all know how it feels to attend a half-hearted PD session we don’t think will be useful in our classrooms. Maybe it’s the content that feels irrelevant or the structure of the session. Whatever the cause, teachers are tired of attending PD that doesn’t fit our personal needs or the needs of our school […]
Posted inAdult Learning
2018: Reflections on a School Year
It’s the Saturday after the last day of school for teachers. I am turning 58 today. I just completed my 34th year as a social studies teacher. Tomorrow is Father’s Day. Looking back over the past year and over the arch of my career, I want to write about the struggles and successes of my […]
Posted inHow to Fix Education
The High Expectations Myth
The high expectations myth is a pernicious, insidious mantra. It is the notion that if I, as a teacher, say and believe I hold high expectations, it is magically true. Examining actual teaching practices is neither necessary nor worthwhile. I have better things to do. Change or growth or flexibility aren’t needed. It is the […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
The Types of Teachers at Professional Development Meetings
There are two types of professional development situations teachers find themselves in. There is the type that excites us and motivates us to be better teachers. The type where you immediately log in to Pinterest to extend the lessons you participated in during the training. Immediately you are on Amazon Prime ordering a book related […]
Posted inHow to Fix Education
Teachers In Action: From the Classroom to the Convention
It was a busy week. My student government kids teleconferenced with the Broward Education Foundation to award them $1,000 they had collected through the spare change in the cafeteria. The SCA students wanted to help the victims of the Parkland, Florida school shooting. The organization receiving the gift looks after the social, economic, and academic […]
Posted inTeacher Self Care
A New Teacher’s Perspective: Ranting, Destressing, and Teacher Health
I suppose I should start off by saying that I love my job. It’s rewarding, fun, and, generally, awesome. However, some days, my job is also very frustrating. When my projector isn’t working, or when students are just not listening, I find myself feeling stressed out. In this, I know I am not alone. My […]