Big Thoughts About Schools, Teaching, and Learning
Over the years, I have had some stellar teachers. Today I’m sharing some tips and tricks for achieving their level of awesomeness 🙂 Build a planetarium out of garbage bags and giant boxes and use a thumb-tack to poke out astrologically correct constellations. Keep in the corner of the classroom at all times. Name …
It’s been a minute. Whoops! I’ve been doing a lot of subbing lately, and lacrosse coaching season just started!
This is a rough season for schools. Students and teachers are on edge. Debate is fierce over the causes and solutions for the growing problem of school shootings. At its core, this is truly a heart issue and a family issue. We probably do need some moderate gun reforms in the short term to buy us safety and time to deal with such systemic brokenness.
But ultimately, schools can only control what they can control, so today I have some ideas on how to tackle that issue and others. (more…)
Over the years, I have observed that the needs of students Ages 13-15 (Grades 8-10) differ pretty widely from their older high school peers. I was blessed with positive a middle school experience because I was in a school that cared for me as a person before academics. I also had a fabulous student teaching experience in a sixth grade classroom that offered some quality community to students instead of simply shuffling them around.
Our school systems are stuck in an orbit
For years I have pondered this question. For years public education in the United States has operated as a conduit, both mimicking the 9-5 factory-style work system and preparing students for it.
Well, bit of a news flash, both home life and work life in the United States has changed rather dramatically in the last two decades 🙂
And while we have attempted to reform
The way teenagers are treated by adults
Particularly librarians. Why librarians? I have no idea, but so often I have seen librarians snapping at students just for using the library as it was intended to be used: for study and research. I thought it was a librarian’s job to cultivate that, not snuff it.
This issue of adult interaction with teens extends
The flexible schedule
I can set my available days. Before my daughter, I could sub five days a week if called or I could choose to only work two and go to Bend or the beach for the day. Of course,
One of the love-hate elements of substitute teaching at the high school level is that the classroom teacher often leaves films for subs to watch with students.
In my opinion, leaving movies as the lesson plan doesn’t reflect especially well on the classroom teacher because it often communicates one of two things. Either the teacher views the substitute as incompetent and incapable of moving learning forward, or the teacher was caught without emergency lesson plans when he or she came down with the winter cold. The exception is highly specialized classes such as band, choir, or theater.
One such day, (more…)
I could probably do a whole blog devoted entirely to subbing stories. This morning as I walked around the neighborhood with my daughter, I was reflecting on all my crazy teaching experience. I have now had my license for seven years, and I have more years of subbing than actual full-time teaching under my belt. And that’s okay; the system needs good reliable subs who can handle the crazy, the ridiculous, and the stupid.
As I pondered this, I was reminded of all the fabulous stories I’ve collected in classrooms over those years. And I decided they simply must be shared. (more…)
Although Daniel Pink’s revolutionary book Drive primarily addresses businesses, the concepts are extremely applicable to education. The book explains the psychology behind human motivation and work. This is probably the most transformative professional development book I’ve read since Teach Like a Champion. And I read it for fun, which is fitting 🙂
When considering my teaching and grading style (small groups and grades based regularly on participation), the concepts in Drive are alternately mind-blowing and completely obvious. I have always known that something had gone deeply awry in the grading of 6-12 grade students, but I could never quite put my finger on it. Daniel Pink and his research nailed it. (more…)
I once read a Facebook comment on the wall of an acquaintance who teaches P.E. and was planning for an absence. Her coworker essentially told her to “Just give them a movie. They’re just a sub.” I was flabbergasted. And thoroughly offended. So, let me set the record straight.
Substitutes are an indispensable support beam in the education world. Schools and classrooms literally could not (more…)
