How often do you think about self-care? At the beginning of the year? During grading periods when you’re stressed out and wondering why you’re teaching? When you’ve had a fabulous weekend/day/month off and you think about how awesome it feels? When you’ve had enough and decide to take a ‘mental health sick day’?s That’s what […]
teacher support
Why I Want to Karate-Chop the SmartBoard and 19 Other Rants
Why I want to karate-chop the SmartBoard I worked for a district who had the nicest SmartBoards and projectors around. I liked them, they were easy to use, and they were only there a few years. But, the darndest thing happened: the same year we took a forced pay freeze, the district purchased new equipment […]
I Am Not Your Hero: Surviving the Educator’s Savior Complex
I am not Michelle Pfeiffer. I don’t wear leather jackets, and I’m not that thin. I am not Hillary Swank. I do have two jobs, but I don’t wear pearls to school. I am not Morgan Freeman. I’m not patrolling my hallways with a baseball bat and locking the doors to keep out the “bad […]
When Students Provide Perspective
Sometimes, I feel like I need a little perspective. Some days, I come home from work exhausted. Especially this week, the week before Thanksgiving Break. This is not something that is unique to me. All week, I have seen posts on social media from other teachers that are feeling the same way. With daylight savings […]
15 Things My 2-Year-Old Taught Me This Year
A few weeks after my son was born in November 2015, I started thinking differently as a teacher. While I don’t think this applies to everyone, I feel like it did – and continues to – make me a better teacher. For the past two years I’ve shared lessons I’ve learned from him as a […]
The Challenges of Mental/Emotional Health for Teachers
By: Scott Miller Phoenix When I began teaching, I never once thought about the challenges I would face when it came to mental health and stress. It never crossed my mind that stress would be a factor for a teacher until I had to manage a classroom. During my first five years teaching, I averaged […]
Response To Intervention: One Teacher’s Story
A decade ago, I was the first classroom teacher at my elementary school to complete a round of RTI. The counselor, principal and I went into the process with confusion, determined to get a struggling third-grade student the help she needed. Since those early RTI days, I’ve provided tier II and III interventions and watched […]
Teachers Talk about RTI: The Educator’s Room Survey Results
RTI – Response to Intervention – has made its way to the top of the list of most commonly used education acronyms. Â Since changes to policy language in the 2004 Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), the Response to Intervention framework has emerged as the favored way to identify students with learning disabilities. Â After a decade […]