Deep Passion.Great Teaching. IGNITED
I thought I had classroom management all figured out figured out until 2017. I’ve taught all kinds of students and by this time I’d been teaching for seventeen years. Like most urban school districts our school district had schools in certain areas of the city that had been neglected and were facing state take over. In order to get the school out of Improvement Required status teachers were offered a … Read More →
I often wonder why administrators put so much emphasis on lesson plans. Truth be told my lesson plans never reflect exactly what I’m teaching, because most of the time more than sixty percent of my students are working below grade level. Lesson plans become less important especially during dreadful test prep time prior to testing. Getting students prepared for testing can be a stressful time for teachers. Since teachers are … Read More →
“Something is going on with James (name is changed to protect the student’s privacy)”, I said to the ELA teacher on my grade level. He has become quick tempered and is angry. My teammate agreed and said that something must be going on at home. After this initial conversation I was discussing James’ behavior and how he had changed with our school counselor and the ELA teacher. Shortly after the … Read More →
Two years ago I attended a school district workshop on Implementing Project Based Learning. The two presenters were educators from the more affluent part of our school district but that didn’t matter to me. Although the presenters and I didn’t teach the same demographic of students I still stayed for the entire presentation. The information and resources they provided during their session was phenomenal! When I left the session I … Read More →
This year I decided that I wasn’t going to test prep my students to death by making them do endless amounts of math word problems during every class period. And yes, I do question whether or not this will be an epic failure. But I have to keep reminding myself that I went through the same thought process when I decided to transition from a 100% paper based classroom to … Read More →
The second semester of the school year is absolutely the worst part of the school year for me. You’d actually think that I’d be excited because school is close to being over, but nope that’s not the case. The only two words that I can ever think about from January to May are TEST Preparation. If you’re not an educator or don’t teach a testing grade level the second semester … Read More →
Every time I stand in front of my students my goal is expose my students to different instructional methods so that they will able to compete with students in and outside of our district. I have always wanted to implement Project Based Learning but never had the opportunity to do so until last year. So during the summer I attended a session on PBL at a conference in my school … Read More →
If you ask any fourth or fifth grade math teacher what is the most important foundation concept most would probably say place value. In kindergarten the teachers focus on the making a 10 concept.Then place value is introduced in first grade using ten frames, Base 10 blocks, or counters. Grade levels 2-4 build on those place value concepts through addition and subtraction with regrouping, rounding, multiplication and division. In my … Read More →
Teachers are increasingly faced with challenges stemming from the intensity and scope of student needs in the classroom. If you ask a new teacher what’s their number concern they will probably mention classroom management or student behavior. Most teachers look at classroom management as this huge monster. When in fact it is a taxonomy of different topics. Student behavior is one of the most neglected areas of classroom management. Most teachers … Read More →
I have seen so many new teachers struggle with classroom management for a variety of reasons. Some teachers either try to bribe the students and others try to implement ineffective strategies that they taught in their education classes. By the middle of the school year many of these teachers quickly realize that the students don’t respect them and have no control over their classrooms. A teacher’s classroom management can be … Read More →
