As I write these words, Arizona officially is number 1 in the nation for the spread of COVID-19. Cases are spiking higher than we’ve seen since July. Teachers staged sick-outs this week as school boards voted to ignore state benchmarks
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What’s Working Online
I, like so many teachers across the country, am still teaching online. My district has made the decision that we will be fully online until at least January (depending on the metrics), which means I am committed to doing my
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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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Cameras Off
I am officially starting my 6th week of online teaching through Zoom. Every day, I boot up my laptop, launch my Zoom meeting, and smile at the names of students that appear on my screen in empty black boxes. If
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Murphy’s Law
I am writing this blog at the end of what felt like the longest first day of school ever. I will also begrudgingly admit, it was probably my worst first day of school ever. Whatever could go wrong, did go
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To Plan or Not to Plan?
Today is my student’s last day of school, and what a year it was. It started a cyber- attack, ended with a pandemic, and exhausted me to no end. It is the end of my 8th year of teaching, and
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Six Feet Apart
I spent this past weekend recreating, cutting, and mailing invitations to my sister’s socially distant baby shower. In our three months of planning, it has morphed from a typical party of baby themed games to a drive-by wave at the
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Oh, How We Miss You
Last week wrapped up my school’s spring break. And with all the news about COVID-19, school closures, and digital learning, this break was anything but relaxing. Officially, we are only on day 3 of our school closure, but it has
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A Digital World
Technology in schools is always a hot button issue. For every teacher that loves their tech, another hates it and vows to never use it; for every school that goes 1-1, another throws away all their devices and digs out
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NBCT, Now What?
I truly did not want to log into my account last month to see my National Board scores; I was far too nervous. My boyfriend made me hit that button (with my eyes closed) and his quick, completely spoiler free
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