Have you backed up your work lately? Because I hadn’t. And in the blink of an eye, all of it was gone. Quizzes, reading materials, practice grammar assignments, my final exam from last year, current data I had compiled- all
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Community Building Instead of Syllabus Reading
Teaching an AP class can be incredibly stressful. There is so much content to go over, make sure students are ready for their exam, and don’t forget all the required documents and Supreme Court cases they need to know. I am
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Change: Ready or Not, Here it Comes
I parked in the same lot, walked onto the same campus, and opened the same door I’ve opened for 5 years. But, instead of a strong feeling of familiarity, I experienced a feeling of the unknown. I have a confession
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Bury The Curriculum
It is the night before the first day of school. You are a prepared teacher. You have great lessons ready for your students. Everything is printed and ready to go. Yet, you still feel worried. What if this math lesson
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Happy Classroom Community
Having my daughter in fifth-grade last year changed the way I look at my classroom. Her school day started in my partner teacher’s homeroom for math and science and her afternoons were spent in my room for Reading, Writing, and
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Back to School – District Office Style
I was scrolling through Facebook a few weeks before school started and stopped on an image by principal and school humorist Gerry Brooks. I was dismayed. The image was that of a teacher’s nightmare, the nightmare of meetings being planned
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#MomLife: Tips for Juggling It All
Meet Brooks Nash Clark, my seven and a half-month-old son. He has red hair, which people love to point out to me, a big gummy smile, and is the cutest little man I’ve ever met, also the messiest person. How
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Act 1, Scene 1: Developing a Love of Music
5:00 am BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. I roll over groggy wondering what that crazy sound is coming from my bedside table. Oh, yes. I remember now; it’s my alarm clock. Today is the first day of school with students, and I must be on
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The Best Part
Teaching is a difficult job full of tough days and challenging students, so I try to focus on the good stuff: the lesson I planned that went perfectly, the student who says that I am their favorite teacher, the moment
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