Implications of the Hybrid Classroom
A few weeks ago I curated some resources around the hybrid classroom in a pandemic teaching situation. I have had a lot of people asking to see it, so I figured I’d share it here.
We Are Grading Students, But Are We Grading Ourselves?
As this whirlwind, unprecedented school year comes to a close, many schools are grappling with how to close out their gradebooks for the year.
Please Stop Teaching Like Everything is Normal
As I sit at home with my 5 1/2 year-old and 2 year-old attempting to figure out some kind of routine and manage my own anxieties, I have been struggling not to cringe as I watch the entire country turn educating kids into a huge social and technological experiment. The approaches range widely, with some…
Turning Boredom into Brilliance: Digital Wellbeing in the Classroom
What would a “bored and brilliant” school community look like, and what could it achieve?
Why Teachers Should Think Twice Before Selling Their Content Online
Over the last few weeks there have been a number of conversations centered around who owns the content that teachers create for their classrooms. Anyone in the teaching profession knows that part of being a teacher is actually not that different from being an artist. Teachers have to think outside of the box about how…
A Conversation About Teacher Retention With Acting Secretary of Education, John King
I was honored today to take part in the first “Tea with Teachers” round table discussion of 2016 focused around teacher retention. While Acting Secretary John King was the host, he mostly listened and asked questions. With only an hour to discuss such an important issue in education, it felt as though a lot was left…
On Motherhood and Teaching
It has been almost a year since my last post here. What a year it has been…. As many of you know, I had a son in July. Since then, my whole world has revolved around him and managing being a mom and a teacher. Anyone who is a teacher or knows a teacher, knows…
Hey, We Started a School!
It was 3:00pm on June 20th, the last day of school. The inaugural staff of SLA@Beeber sat around the huge conference table in the main office going over highlights and areas for growth for next year. We picked apart processes, events, successes, failures and made suggestions for next year. We discussed our capacity as a…
The Internet According to 9th Graders
To start off the year, I decided to make sure that all of my 9th graders understand what the Internet really is and how it works before they get their Internet-ready laptops in a few weeks. When they came in, they had the first five minutes of class to “draw the Internet.” I got a…
The First Day of a New School: We Built This
I am so exhausted I can barely keep my eyes awake, but it’s a good kind of tired. After weeks of team building, inquiry into our own pedagogical practices, building units, discussing and working out details on school operations from scheduling the first day to student flow through the building, loading up UHaul trucks with…