Let Teachers Teach: Bring Creativity Back into the Classroom
The jubilation of summer vacation is still palpable in the air. But I believe that a series of issues simply must be addressed prior to first bell in September. So much is at stake for us. The future success of our society is driven by the success of the schools today. Teachers are seriously demoralized. Forget for a moment the….Read more
Grading: 3 Tips for Turning Mountains into Molehills
Are stacks of papers to grade weighing you down? Keeping you up at night? Depressing your spirit because the pile never shrinks? Grade fights with parents? I’ve been there. Grading student writing takes time; you have to climb inside the kid’s mind and think along with her. That is labor intensive. And we have to assign large volumes of….Read more
The Kid in my Classroom on Monday Morning
One Monday morning just before the bell rings for school, I am already overwhelmed. The students are buzzing around in the hallways and the building is alive with adolescents. My class is about to start and I have 100 things to do for the day. With just a couple minutes before the bell, I’m entering a column of grades….Read more