Quit Complaining About “These Kids.” Seriously, stop it. We spend a lot of our days visiting districts, observing classrooms, and talking with teachers, and I’m starting to hear something more often than I should. I keep hearing teachers say things a long the lines of: “This would work, but ‘these kids’ can’t do it…next year will be better.” I’ve had … Read More
5 Mistakes Districts Should Avoid When Rolling Out A New Initiative
So as you sit in a meeting, you start to hear rumblings of a new initiative that your district will be rolling out. This could be anything from a new policy, a new vendor coming in, or maybe a new curriculum that is being purchased. We all have the same gut reaction, “Grreeeaat…another thing to do.” As teachers, we are … Read More
Tech Tools for Teaching – One Rule
GUEST POST – Tiffany Ott Gifted Intervention Specialist – Cleveland, OH. Watch out guys I might be getting on a soap box here. I am about as much of an ed-tech junkie as you would find in any school around the country. I use technology in my classroom everyday and encourage (nag?) others to do so as well. But (and … Read More
“Hey Teacher!” Why you should never hear that again.
“Hey Teacher!” You’ve probably been there before. A student, frustrated with their hand in the air decides it’s all of a sudden ok to yell across the room “Hey Teacher!” (they might use your name, but you get the point). There’s a good chance this isn’t a rare occurrence in your classroom. You’re awesome, so you probably manage your classroom well … Read More
You Suck At Lecturing in Your Classroom
Seriously…knock it off. Ok…so this is going to make a few of you mad and I don’t want to lecture you (haha…see what I did there?) but this needs to be said. In a recent workshop, I had an educator ask me: “I don’t know if I can do this. If I don’t lecture, how will my students learn anything?” While … Read More