Quality lessons for the busy teacher
Seminal US documents, while dense with academic concepts and perfect for teaching a wealth of standards, can seem like pretty darn poor choices for engagement. I mean, what teen wants to read about dead, old people? I am here to tell you it IS possible to shake up student engagement with seminal US documents. First let’s break down the common… Read More
National Poetry Month is here. I used to be hesitant to teach poetry. To be honest, I still am sometimes. But I have learned a few things about teaching poetry that have transformed my life. Scaffold, scaffold, scaffold. 1) Scaffold, scaffold, scaffold. I think this one falls by the wayside sometimes with upper grades. I know I personally would forget… Read More
Amanda Gorman’s poem at President Joe Biden’s inauguration was a show stopper. My thoughts were spinning trying to absorb the poem, analyze it, and witness the sheer impact of a young black woman reciting a poem at an inauguration. As a teacher and a mother, I can’t emphasize how incredibly important it was to see a young black woman reciting… Read More
The events that transpired January 6th, 2021 at Capitol Hill are devastating. I was glued to my screen, energy draining out of me, exhausted. So many questions were running through my head: How did this happen? How were law makers allowing this to happen? How were community leaders letting this happen? Where was the security team for Capitol Hill? What… Read More
Okay, so what is Pigeon Impossible and why is it so good for teaching tone, mood, and pacing? Well Pigeon Impossible is a short film by Lucas Martell. It has no dialogue, is short, and engaging! If you have read anything by me before, you know I love engaging lessons, especially ones that utilize film to convey narrative techniques and… Read More
This post goes over mental health, please click away if it’s not your thing. 2020 has been one heck of a year. This year saw a pandemic, the world burning, murder hornets, and all sorts of terrible disasters. For my little family it included an international move, the start of my dissertation, and the birth of our first baby too…. Read More
I don’t know about you, but when I was in school I remember my teachers pulling out the usual MLK speech or commercials and telling us to analyze for persuasive appeals. In teacher prep, those same methods came out. But those are boring. Filling out a worksheet is boring. And when I tried to teach my own students using the… Read More
Homework bin Classwork bins Pass sign in/sign out Bathroom pass/hallpass Calendar Communal utensils Do now routine Exit ticket routine When it comes to prepping for my first year of teaching, I was scratching my head. Now sitting on the other side of my first year, I can say these things definitely helped. Organization All teacher prep programs will emphasize organization…. Read More
Escape rooms. Gamified learning. Treasure hunts. Huge project-based learning units. If you are anything like me, you can get overwhelmed by all the possibilities of how to structure a lesson and which method will engage students the most. I’m positive the first time I sat in on a professional development before the school year on all the “new techniques” that… Read More
The first year I was introduced to philosophical chairs, I was amazed. It sounded too good to be true, to be honest. Getting students to talk about something controversial, without tearing each other apart cage fight style? Nah, pipe dream. But it’s true. Philosophical Chairs is a way for students to practice real-world communication skills, impress administrators, and enforce metacognitive… Read More