Strategies for classroom success
May 13, 2021 Throughout the year, I always try to embed learning opportunities for my students to grow as a person or reflect on who they used to be. At the end of the school year, it can get so busy and we need mini-lessons that can take one day here or there to fill…
May 6, 2021 I’ve been an educator for 14 years, doing the hard work and getting that week of treats and sweet thoughts from our PTA, administrators, students and community organizations and restaurants that come with Teacher Appreciation Week. This year, though, with being a virtual teacher, I was able to be on the other…
March 31, 2021 As teachers, we often feel a sense of urgency with the tasks we do. Deadlines, testing windows, end of term, personal goals set by us, parents or even students—so many things impose this on us. What if I told you that not everything is an emergency, would you believe me? Because they…
March 23, 2021 Today was my monthly call day for the week. In my virtual teaching world, I have to have a monthly call to check in with my students and families working at home. It’s just what we do. I always thought that what I did was the same as everyone else—until today. I…
March 12, 2021 Evaluations are a dreaded part of being a teacher. We teach all day for 180 days a year but have only a handful of observations to catch us in action. Some teachers just teach like a regular day, some prepare and ensure they hit every mark, some fall somewhere in the middle…
February 27, 2021 My first teaching job was 6th grade Reading and I had no idea what I was doing. I had been military, then corporate while I worked through a business degree, but when I realized that life was about making money and not so much helping people and limited how much time I…
January 12, 2021 Most everyone has heard the story of the Prodigal son from the Bible, where the father celebrates the son that was gone and returned, making the son that never left upset, until the father explains his why. But, as a whole, society rarely celebrates the prodigal anything. We have awards for Honor…
August 2020 Since we decided to keep our son home for eLearning for the first term of 4th grade, I’ve been racking my brain and the internet for how to set up a learning area for him. I work from home already, but we quickly learned during the pandemic closure and 4th quarter of last…
August 2020 My life goes ninety miles an hour most days and has for as long as I can remember. I have tried to slow down so many times, but things just continuously come at me that it feels impossible. I found myself searching for ways to simplify and slow down. Minimalism has crept into…
It happens, all too often. We spend hours sorting out all the fine details to make a lesson perfect and something goes wrong, and we don’t have time to compensate for it. Technology fails or ends up unavailable. None of the copiers are working. We must double down on students since our buddy teacher had…
