We made it through February and here we are in March. March has always been my least favorite month as a teacher. Growing up in Western New York, March is the month where you’re like, done with the snow…but it’s still going to snow. You get teased with a few fair-weather days, but the dirty slush pushed around again and … Read More
Rethinking Teacher Evaluations: Consistency Over Performance
The topic of teacher evaluations often stirs a mix of anxiety and debate among educators. I feel the stress and anxiety in classrooms all around the country. While these assessments aim to measure teaching effectiveness, they tend to (more often than we’d all like to admit) promote a culture of “performance” lessons—special classes designed to impress school leaders. This raises … Read More
What would you do with 5 extra minutes in your day?
We are one month in from creating our New Year’s Resolutions. Some of us may have come up with our one word to anchor us in this new year, some inspired by Gretchen Rubin and created 25 in 25 lists, and some of us may have tried to put our goals in the start/stop/continue/consider buckets. Now that it is February, … Read More
Beginning Again in 2025
Happy New Year, Teach Happier community! New year, new you? Nope. New Year. Same Us. Bless. As we usher in 2025, we may need to apply a small shift in thought – we are not starting over, we are simply beginning again. We get to take all our experiences and lessons learned in all our years prior into this new … Read More
Why Personalized Professional Development Is a Game-Changer for Teachers
TL;DR: Personalized professional development tailors growth opportunities to individual educators’ needs, improving engagement, practicality, and flexibility. This approach fosters meaningful classroom impact through coaching, self-directed learning, and actionable feedback. Personalized professional development is exactly what it sounds like—tailoring growth opportunities to fit the unique needs of each individual educator. In today’s ever-changing classroom environments, the old “one-size-fits-all” approach to professional … Read More