TL;DR: Teachers can press pause to develop a lesson, collect factual sources, and determine how to teach the lesson in an age-appropriate manner. Determine if you are ‘preaching’ or ‘teaching.’ Provide a balanced perspective and seek resources from multiple perspectives. What is the best approach to teaching about current events and controversial issues? Americans are divided on issues related to … Read More
If You Teach ELA, Prepare to Also Teach History
TL;DR: To effectively teach English, it is important that educators also teach history. Language arts gives us the opportunity to add dimension to our students’ understanding of a specific event, idea, or person. Use historical texts to create experiences. Our students’ futures are contingent on events happening now. They can use the skills they’ve built upon as readers and writers, … Read More
Social (Justice) Studies as Experiential Learning
TL;DR: It is critical that we realign the lens of experiential learning to include the domains of social (justice) studies. This will help to truly engage students in their worlds. Experiential learning in the classroom needs to make space for areas in social studies and the world in which we live. It takes those issues on from a lens of … Read More
EP70: Do We Need to Address Current Events?
In Episode 70 of The Staffroom Podcast, Chey and Pav talk about whether or not it’s important to bring current events into their classrooms, and if so, how they are enabling that conversation within their spaces. They discuss the many reasons they feel it’s important to bring events into the classroom, whether positive or negative, and discuss some of the … Read More
Discovering Your “Why”
TL;DR: Teachers provide more value when they stay up to date on current events around our country and world. We should model for our students what it means to be a lifelong learner. As a teacher, it is important to know your why. Finding your why is a necessary part of your teaching career. My journey to finding my why begins … Read More