Did you know that teachers can have an entire conversation consisting of acronyms? The SEI teacher has an SST meeting for a student who may need an IEP for his SLD. The OT, SLP and SPED teacher need to do
Read More
Content Reading As Teacher Self-Care
It’s no secret that school staff have large and demanding workloads that leave many with little time or energy to take proper care of themselves. Stress, illness, fatigue, apathy, depression, bad temper, and the like tend to follow. Fortunately, teacher
Read MoreUnconditionally
Crowded in a standing-room-only auditorium, I looked beyond the waving sea of tissues, and listened intently as the speaker had to enunciate over a chorus of sniffles. A young woman who had graduated a few years after me was recounting
Read More
That “Q” Word
It is a new school year, and that means we are starting over fresh! New students, new clothes, new friends, new perspective; moving on from the-school-year-that-must-not-be-named. We kissed online learning good-bye, and are fully back to in-person learning. Hallelujah! On
Read More
Letting Things Go
I am a yes girl. “Mrs. Kirchoff, will you take the lead on this?” Yes. “Mrs. Kirchoff, will you write this up for us?” Yes. “Can you be on this committee?” Yes. “We are looking for volunteers to help out
Read More
Kiss That Phrase Goodbye!
“Ok, class we’re going to kiss that phrase goodbye!” said the teacher, as she put a sticky note on a cute bulletin board shaped like lips that include phrases they would never say again. Already on the list is “hanitizer”
Read More
Year 35 or Year 1? The Voyage Has Begun
Some weeks ago, in Year 35 or Year 1?, I pondered how teaching in a high school for the first time since 1987 would go. I wondered what high school students were like, how well I would do, in delivering
Read More
I’ll have it all figured out when…..
I have completed the first couple of weeks of the 21-22 school year as I write this. It has been everything that the beginning of school should be: exhausting and chaotic in all of the most familiar ways. We are
Read More
Our Story is SO Different
The scene is set in the front office of a school before teachers have returned to work. There are two people, the school office manager, and the principal, sitting and working separately on their computers. The hustle and bustle of
Read MoreFeelings and Reason: An Introduction to 2021
Last year we played the Hokey Pokey on a district scale. We took the kids out. We put the kids in. We took half the kids out and put the other half in. There was absolutely no consistency to the
Read More