Teaching Middle School is hard. There are layers and layers of developmental science that teach us educators all about the why’s and how’s and when’s and wow’s of adolescence. Socially, new social circles are emerging. Diverse opinions are converging. Physically and emotionally, young emerging adults feel like roller coasters who are operating at unstoppable and slow moving speeds (that often … Read More
Teachers: Take Note of Sunshine in the Winter
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