Last Friday, I attended and presented at the Michigan Council of Teachers of English (MCTE) annual fall conference held in Lansing, Michigan. This was my third consecutive year attending and presenting at a professional conference after many, many years of not going at all. I do not think it’s a coincidence that the past three […]
professional development
Posted inCommon Core
Have You Been To A #GAFE Summit?
I’ve been teaching for 26 years – English, AVID, Yearbook, Reading, History and any sort of intervention class that gets thrown my way. I’ve been through whole language and back. I’ve survived NCLB. I’ve been trained in teaching the Gifted and Talented, the At-Risk and 21st-century students. And last weekend, I went to my first […]
Posted inFeatured
Why You Should Feel PUMPED About a New School Year
While parents are clamoring away, eager to get their children back into the whole school routine, many educators don’t feel ready. On the other hand, this teacher feels super pumped about starting a new school year. Is she mad? Has she lost her mind? What’s wrong with this woman? Well, my friends, I am crazy. Crazy excited […]
Posted inFeatured
Using Open Classes in OUR Classrooms
I love to learn. I would be the person in college for the rest of my life if I could fit it in with everything else I do. So when I came across Harvard’s open classes, I was in heaven. Several universities, many Ivy League, offer open classes that are free online and can be […]
Posted inUncategorized
Who Will Care for the Teachers?
When I sat down to write this piece, my purpose was to scribe a thinly veiled, autobiographical accounting of my own experience of surviving the middle school classroom while I struggled with depression. However, wanting to avoid the cathartic-memoir trope, I planned to include information on the prevalence of depressive disorders among classroom teachers .I […]
Posted inUncategorized
What Teachers Are Really Searching For Online
Wonder what teachers are really searching for online? I can tell you – it’s not just lesson plans or decoration ideas. It’s not just how to deal with the unruly child, or how to motivate a reluctant reader. Those searches would be understandable. What teachers are really searching for online is this: jobs for retired […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum, Literacy, Professional Development, Technology, Uncategorized
One-to-One Presentations=”Contextus”
Last month, I travelled to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to attend the 2015 National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Convention with two fellow teachers to participate in poster sessions under the topic Digital Pedagogies and Approaches to Media. One of the poster session was titled “Every Picture Tells a Story” and offered by Catherine Flynn, the Literacy Specialist […]
Posted inFeatured, Teacher Burnout
Smothering Burnout: Tips for Teachers On the Edge of Teacher Burnout
I am in my twentieth year of teaching. I know I am doing what I was created to do. I know I am teaching where I need to be teaching. But after two decades of teaching, the ‘B’ word has begun to haunt me: I am burning out. My dad used to always say if […]