In my 14 years of classroom teaching, I feel like I took Teacher Appreciation Week for granted. I didn’t really feel the need to be appreciated. I loved what I did and I felt the love from 150 high school
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Loving Intentions and Liking Our Students
There is a sign on the door of my classroom that says “I <3 My Students” (with an actual heart). It is cut out in the shape of a heart and made on sunset colored poster board. I made it
Read MoreWhy Men are Not a Bigger Part of the K-12 Education System
I write this blog while sitting in the midst of over 200 teachers attending a training day for candidates working towards their National Board certification. And while sitting in this large, noisy meeting room, my thoughts returned me to
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Keep the Student in Student Teacher
Dear Student Teacher, Congratulations! In a few months, you will begin the part of your college experience that you have likely been waiting for forever – student teaching. I hope that your student teaching experience gives you all the tools
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Outdoor Education
Over a decade ago when I started teaching sixth grade one of my first questions were about the school’s science camp program. I was teaching in the same district I had attended as a sixth grader and remembered the major
Read MoreStill, I Blog
To pull back a curtain, I’ll let you know that I wrote a generic blog post a few months back to keep around in the event I was stressed or in a pinch the week I was scheduled to post
Read MoreAsk Why, Not Who Else
I wonder what success we would find with students if we approached student’s behavior with the same inquiry based thinking we use for other problems we face? While I have never met a teacher who is in the field for
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“I don’t want to do this anymore.”
“I don’t want to do this anymore.” In over 27,000 class periods I’d never thought those words before, but recently, I’d been thinking them before my three seventh grade math classes everyday. Our seventh grade is a singularly rich combination
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The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: Online Preschool Showdown
This is a story about good intentions, bad implementation, and ugly consequences. But let’s get straight to the point: I’m talking about online preschool. Perhaps you just lowered your eyebrows and scrunched your face a bit. That’s what I did
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