Rise and grind. Three little words that have summed my entire life, and I would guess many others as well. As a kid, my parents instilled the idea that we achieved when we worked hard day after day without fail.
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“Finding Gratitude in Uncertain Times”
During a typical year, it’s a challenge getting some kindergartners into school the first day. They are usually crying and hugging their parents, refusing to let go to enter the building. It takes some very convincing, persuasive talks to get
Read MoreMemoir of a Plague Teacher
It’s the end of August, 2020. I sit in my office (it’s only a classroom if students are in it). The glare of the computer screen casts pale blue. Bleary-eyed from lesson planning, navigating folders, grading too-little and obviously phoned-in
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Sending Up Flares: Teachers Are Calling For Help
“Is anyone else feeling like they are just hanging on by their fingernails?” This question, asked by a middle school teacher, interrupted a grade level discussion about a common formative assessment. The question opened the floodgates. Anxiety, dread, and frustration
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COVID is SCARIER than Halloween!
There is nothing wrong with a fun scare. Most people will agree that the opportunity to be shocked in this way often ends in laughter and good memories. Halloween is one time of year when it is ok to play
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Online Classroom Management
I officially had my first discipline referral this year. In an online learning environment, it does feel a little bit embarrassing to have discipline issues, but, I guess it is just as easy to break the rules from home as
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Time to Vote, or Not
It’s time again for what’s becoming a quadrennial visit into the world of social studies. Four years ago in Teaching and Practicing the Civics of Voting, I argued that the merits of not voting should be discussed in lessons about
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A Most Excellent Antidote
In any October that is not 2020, I, along with countless other Americans, will line up to enter haunted houses. We line up to walk through a land of make-believe. It heightens our senses, brings us a sense of whimsy,
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Students Speak About School 2020
If you have been reading Stories from School Arizona (this blog), you probably sense that, as challenging as “emergency” teaching and learning was in the spring (to steal a term from Fisher, Frey and Hattie), the scene in schools this
Read MoreWhat’s Going to Work?
Remember the Wonder Pets? It was a TV show on Nick Jr that featured an adorable trio of heroes—a chick, a hamster, and a turtle. In each episode, they would combine their unique skill sets and rescue a poor, stranded
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