While polls show that moms typically carried the heaviest burden in supporting children’s remote learning, many dads were also working hard to help their children learn at home. Yes, I consider myself an active father. Yes, I am around more than my father was, but the credit is not entirely mine. While certain stigmas about […]
remote learning
Posted inCOVID-19, Elementary School, Mental Health, Opinion, Teacher Burnout, Teacher Self Care
Looping Kept Me From Quitting Teaching. Here’s Why
Isolated Students, Exhausted Teachers and a Call for a Familiar Face Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! According to Daniel Malcom at the National Library of Medicine, current trends show that young people are feeling increased levels of loneliness and isolation. This directly correlates with feelings […]
Posted inOpinion
I Thought This Would Be the Year “After” COVID, But I Was Wrong
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! I sat in front of the computer, thinking about what I could come up with to keep my students engaged for this last week of school. The computer screen began to blur reminding me of the metaphorical “blur” of […]
Posted inBack to School
Whichever Way You Cut It School in 2020 is Hard
Guest Writer: Dr. Noor Ali, Principal, Al-Hamra Academy Fall 2020 school reopening has been a tricky, tricky business. It has been a time of untold stress and unfathomable planning. It has required flexing of all our known boundaries and delving into the great uncertainty that only a pandemic could unleash. From is this really a health […]
Posted inAsk a Teacher
School Reopenings: Let’s Risk it All or Not At All
The speculation from politicians, colleagues, parents, and relatives about schools reopening is exhausting. No one with authority seems to have a plan and no procedures are standardized. I am sick of politicians like Florida’s governor, Rick DeSantis, comparing going to Walmart and Home Depot for twenty minutes once a month to educating hundreds of children […]
Posted inAsk a Teacher
Are you in a Relationship with Remote Learning? It’s Complicated.
As I plan out three more weeks of instruction and online work, I am also reflecting on my relationship with remote learning. Do I like it? Do I hate it? It’s complicated. I am fortunate to teach in a large suburban district slightly northwest of Syracuse, NY. The school leaders invested in one to one […]
Posted inAsk a Teacher
Teacher, Suspended.
My classroom is now the kitchen table that I share with my eleven-year-old daughter. She is efficient in her work, completing it all before lunch and enjoying the remainder of her day. I, on the other hand, never stop. My days consist of running in place. The emails, the Facebook posts, the Remind texts, and […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
A Pandemic Brings Opportunity to Rethink Standardized Testing
Coronavirus-canceled testing brings an opportunity. As a teacher and parent in the state of New York, news that standardized testing might be canceled this year brings mixed emotions. I suspected the closures due to COVID-19 might come to this, and for many years I have been pretty open about my personal feelings about abuse-by-test. My […]