On a sleepy Monday morning, I pause at my desk to quickly input attendance. After two clicks, I slowly walk toward the room while peeking at different students’ journal responses. The class, collectively hunched over their desks and silently crafting their response, doesn’t notice as I weave through the groups to where Eric sits. He […]
Teaching Strategies
The biggest mistake new teachers can make
You may have noticed from my previous posts that I’m a fairly reflective teacher I’ll admit when I make a mistake in teaching I like to pass on the wisdom gleaned from those mistakes. I especially feel a sense of duty to share everything I’ve learned these past 16 with new teachers. I mean, let’s […]
The ONE THING teachers can do (but refuse to) that will instantly improve their teaching
If you’re a teacher, then you’re probably familiar with the idea of teaching being compared to acting. On any given day, teachers may be tired, depressed, anxious, or generally unhappy, but when the students walk in, they have to be “on.” You might hear the teacher’s voice and energy go up, a smile plastered on […]
5 things I wish I knew when I started teaching
Every seasoned teacher will tell a new one that the first year is the hardest, and understandably so. First-year teachers face an insurmountable challenge of trying to balance classroom culture, classroom management, teaching to the standards, assessment, professional development, staff responsibilities, and home life, to name a few. However, part of surviving that first year […]
7 reasons why your students won’t do their assignment
Picture this: you’ve planned out the perfect unit, and today is when students really need to buckle down and get down to work. You disseminate the assignment, give the students directions, and send them off to learning land. While 30 sets of heads hover over their worksheet, you notice one looking out the window. Another […]
Digging into data: identifying the needs of struggling students
This is my final installment of my Digging into Data series, so I’m going to give an example of how this data has helped me identify struggling students, and how it helps me differentiate for all of students. If you haven’t already read the other posts in the series, I encourage you to do so, […]
Digging into data: two teachers’ perspectives on demographic data
In my previous post, I discussed the merits of administering a baseline assessment and how I interpret that data. Today, I’m looking at student demographic data as another way of creating a complete picture of who my students are. While it doesn’t sound like the most exciting way to spend an hour of planning time, […]
Digging into data: your pre-assessment data is the rudder to your ship
We are a month into the school year, and my data collection is coming along quite nicely. In fact, I’m elbow deep in it, a.k.a., grading my first pre-assessment. I usually take my time with the first one because I’m really trying to learn my students and their writing styles. It’s definitely a labor of […]
