So I haven't written in forever, but something happened this past week that I have to share. I have this kid and she's a normal kid. Sometimes she likes me. Sometimes she becomes angsty when asked to stop talking. Sometimes she's over the top happy for no apparent reason whatsoever.... Continue reading

So I just completed my first full week of teaching. This year, I am at a new school with significantly higher expectations for the individuals who work there and the students who attend. However, so far I'm finding I like the new job. Continue reading

Here is the third in a series of interviews with my children. Many of these students are beginning college this fall and a few will be completing their senior year of high school. Regardless, these students are the reason why I teach and I hope that you might, through these interviews, glean a bit of the inspiration and passion with which they imbue me. Continue reading

At the start of my second year, I was intent on establishing a class culture. We created life maps and shared out in the classroom. We created a social contract, which all my classes agreed to abide by. We worked to create an environment where the able encouraged the struggling.... Continue reading

Teachers must accrue professional development hours in order to assert that their training is ongoing and that their practice is ever-evolving. However, professional developments have varying levels of quality and application in the everyday educator's classroom. Today, since it is what I am experiencing currently, I would like to discuss... Continue reading

Here is the second in a series of interviews with my children. Many of these students are beginning college this fall and a few will be completing their senior year of high school. Regardless, these students are the reason why I teach and I hope that you might, through these interviews, glean a bit of the inspiration and passion with which they imbue me. Continue reading

Sticktoitiveness is defined as dogged perseverance or tenacity. I can recall two moments in my first year that have convinced me that this one quality, above all others, should be valued in an educator. Continue reading

At the beginning of every school year, my students and I review a study "Student Social Class and Teacher Expectations" completed by Brophy in (1985) where he studied teacher interactions with students versus her expectations of their abilities. The study indicated that when teachers grouped students by ability, they interacted with them differently as early as kindergarten. Continue reading

Here is the first in a series of interviews with my children. Many of these students are beginning college this fall and a few will be completing their senior year of high school. Regardless, these students are the reason why I teach and I hope that you might, through these interviews, glean a bit of the inspiration and passion with which they imbue me. Continue reading

Yesterday's review of "Lighting their Fires" functioned as a call to action for me. Rafe's text encouraged me to begin considering how I might encourage my own students to become extraordinary people and these are the changes I am going to implement this upcoming year: Continue reading

Today I have prepared the briefest overview of Rafe Esquith's latest text, "Lighting their Fires." Esquith is one of this nation's finest teachers and so he is often asked by interested parents and educators how one can ensure that s/he raises an extraordinary child. This question was asked so often that Esquith was inspired to write "Lighting Their Fires," in order to give an answer. Continue reading

Teaching is a trial by fire exercise. I make this statement having not taken the traditional courses in education as an undergraduate. But my teacher friends who did assure me that my statement applies to them as readily as it did to me. What's really hilarious is that I thought I knew what I was doing. I thought I knew what teaching was--standing in front of a classroom talking about something you loved (or at least had some knowledge of) to young people who hung on your every word and soaked up all of the information your were spouting off like a sponge. Continue reading

Measuring teacher quality is, undoubtably, one of the most pressing issues in education reform today. However, how one should go about accomplishing such a feat is still to be determined. A system must be created, and it must ultimately ensure two things: that all educators can partake in and benefit from it and, most importantly, it must ensure student growth. Continue reading

Awesomeness -n- Education (AnE) is meant to be a tool that can track the development of an educator currently about to embark upon the fifth year of her career. To be candid, I wasn't the child who dreamed of becoming an educator, but I did consistently tout the idea that... Continue reading