“Sara! I am so inspired!” That is what I heard each month when my colleague, Rebecca Oravec, would call me after her CommunityShare Fellowship meetings a few years ago. Our principal sent out an invite to participate in a monthly
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Switching Gears for the Holidays
December is here! The children are high energy and excited. Families are busy. School schedules are tight. This is the time that I give in to the pull and switch gears so that we can all get through health and
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Pack Your Conference Bags!
Today I didn’t follow my usual routine of driving to school with my son. Instead, I dropped him off and headed to the airport. I’m going to Las Vegas for a teacher conference! Specifically, I’m headed to the ACTE Visions
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STEM Funding and Support Opportunities
We are all aware that we are in the technology era. As a teacher of this era, I recognize that STEM learning opportunities are necessary. It is as important as teaching standard math and language arts, yet many teachers are
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Resolutions and a Plan
Monday was the first day of the second semester of my first year teaching high school since I was a student teacher in 1987. At the beginning of the first semester, I wrote here about what questions I had and
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Not Yet Achieved
‘Twas the night before score release And all through the house Teachers were waiting For their score to be announced! The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards released the scores of National Board candidates this past weekend. Teachers anxiously waited
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New Year, New Goals
It’s the beginning of a new school year. Will this year be better than last? I hope so! The beginning of the year causes many people to start considering what they will do differently or improve upon with a fresh
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Making Professional Development Relevant: My Experience With Inquiry Based PD
I certified as a National Board Certified Teacher in 2018. Part of the power behind the National Board Certification process is the completely individualized professional development. As teachers work toward achieving certification, the instructional emphasis is laser focused on their
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Preparing the Gifted Environment
This COVID year has highlighted some uniques needs in my classroom. As we are naturally concerned about supporting the academic and social needs of our most at-risk students, I noticed little to no attention was given to supporting these same
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To Retake or Not Retake, THAT is the Question
The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards released scores in December 2020. Maybe you saw this: Maybe you didn’t. I opened the score report email three times….all before they included fireworks. The first two started with, “We regret to
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