"Mr. Spencer, we don't have enough breakfasts for the whole class," a kid complains. I double-check the numbers. Zero absent on Cocoa Puffs day, which means that unlike yogurt day, they're all having breakfast. A boy pulls me aside and
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Winding Down
The last time I looked at my calendar it was February. Where has the year gone? We are now fast approaching the end of the year. It didn’t hit me until this weekend, less than 15 days of school left.
Read MoreAre We Ready?
When I achieved National Board Certification I declared that I found my voice. For the last six years, I have used my voice with some proficiency to advocate for teaching excellence. Saturday afternoon I found myself representing Arizona educators
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Pre-emptive Strike: Teachers and Summer Vacation
The public perceives that during summer vacation teachers take vacation. The teacher-leader community perceives that we work – planning for the new year, attending and presenting at conferences, and the like. I think the public perception is closer to the
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A Special Relationship
Is the library the beating heart of your school? Ours is.
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How will we walk the talk? Part One
You’ve seen the cartoons. They’re very popular on teachers’ Facebook pages: A politician holding up a blank slate with the message, “This is the number of policy decisions teachers made when we gave them the chance.” A teacher standing in
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The Loss of a Child
On Saturday night, I received news that one of our students was killed in a tragic car accident. Our community is devastated, the staff is beginning to grieve, and our students will need the full weight of our district’s crisis
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Standardized Tests and Monty Hall
I was proctoring my students during the standardized tests last week and thinking of how we try to train them to try to eliminate a couple of obvious wrong answers before guessing. Then I remembered the Monty Hall Problem. You
Read MoreThat’s Not How Students Write
I spend most of Thursday pulling staples out of the wall, trying my hardest to keep the student work intact. Art work and thought-provoking writing are replaced by emptiness. Whitewashed walls extract the color, vitality and voice of our classroom
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A Third Grader Shares
The majority of us have the opportunity to engage with students on a daily basis. The degree of engagement varies and most often never strays too far from academics, at least not for extended periods of time. Considering that thought
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