Every summer I set my intentions for the next school year. These “New Year Resolutions” help me improve and refine my practice and keeps my teaching fresh. Often times they are built based on my learning experiences, reflections, and readings
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Dear New Teacher, Welcome to the profession! You may be looking around your first classroom and thinking, “When did I become a grown up?” I was 20 years old when I was handed my first classroom keys and 24 five-year-olds.
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Marcus Aurelius said, “The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.” No time of the school year feels more like wrestling than testing season. Between analyzing benchmark results and the looming high-stakes tests, it feels like the perfect
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Does cursive handwriting have a place in today’s schools? That depends on who you talk to, but I say yes, it does. You may be thinking, “Typing skills are needed in the real world.” Yes, of course, but one skill
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In many ways, teachers are masters of split vision on a micro scale. Have you ever seen a first grade teacher successfully run independent literacy stations? What about an ELL teacher hold a Socratic Seminar? How about a middle school
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An education “reformer” floated a proposal to the Governor’s Classrooms First Council that would allow local education agencies (LEAs) to certify teachers independently. The Council agreed that local certification wasn’t a solution and would cause more harm than good.
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If you read my last post, you could see that I was ready for winter break. I gave myself to days of family time, reading non-school-related books and lots of hiking. This time was just what I needed because it
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After teaching for sixteen years, I know teaching is both an art and a science. I practiced the art of teaching this past week leading up to winter break as I kept my students learning and focused with long-anticipated events
Read MoreAs I was dropping my students off at music, I spotted our plant manager, known as Miss Shannon, who was walking a comically tiny bike across the courtyard. As I ran to open the door to the main building, I
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To clarify, my students earned pajama day by making a school fundraiser goal. Did I set up the goals? You bet! I love pajama day! But not just pj day… Occasionally, I wear my “Teacher by day, Jedi by night”
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