Take care of yourself. Are you eating well? Do you have a hobby? What do you do for fun? We’ve all heard it. Take time for yourself. It seems that self-care is all the rage lately. I agree that setting
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Classroom Priorities
What is the most important thing you do as an educator? How do we figure out the answer to that question? Should we rank them? Should we prioritize them? How do we do everything? Here is a quick list of
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Begging Isn’t Enough
“If you care about schools, thank a teacher. And while you’re at it, please beg them not to quit.” Local journalist Steve Irvin tweeted this a few weeks ago. The same day Steve Irvin made his post, I sat quietly
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The Magic of Books
Scene: My sister sent me a video of my niece this week. 15 months old, she is sitting as her mom reads one of her favorite books to her, and she parrots the words “a baby” on cue after her
Read MoreThe Problem of Choice
In nearly every teacher-led meeting I’ve ever attended, the conversation tends to revolve around the same issues: test scores, grades, curriculum, standards alignment, and how these relate to vaguely defined “student achievement”. I can count on one hand the PLCs
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Parent/Teacher Conferences
“Conferences will be at the end of the quarter, make sure you are ready!” Where did the quarter go? Time to spend time assessing and gathering data to show parents. We also need to spend time reflecting on the students
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An, An, An, Anaphora
My students surprise me every day. My students delight me every day. My students amuse me every day. My students question me every day. The repetition of phrases like that is a rhetorical device known as an anaphora. While we
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Three Little Letters
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
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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
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