Getting Started with Zoom: Ten Settings Every Teacher Should Review Before Their First Zoom with Students
To save you some time, here are ten settings that every teacher should review before their first Zoom with students.
Read MoreA New Adventure: Distance Learning
Today was our first day back after Spring Break. It was supposed to be our first day back with students, but a few days before break, it was adjusted to be a Teacher Inservice Day, with students to come back tomorrow.
Things have been changing constantly and as it turns out: today is now our last day. And who knows when students will come back.
Read MoreOption B: Kicking the Elephant Out of the Room
The elephant in the room. When everyone knows it's there, but no one wants to acknowledge it. How does this help or hurt someone who has just experienced a loss? The loss of a loved one, the loss of a job, the loss of relationship.
Read MorePLUS: Starting slow to go fast
With the way we were rostered students, I saw a particular student (6th, 7th or 8th grade - it didn't matter) once on Monday or Tuesday and then a second time that week on either Thursday or Friday. They weren't necessarily in the same group of students either.
Read MorePLUS: Teaching four days a week plus a full day of plan time
One year ago, my school and I embarked on this adventure called PLUS. I don't know why we capitalize it when we write it out. It's not an acronym. It doesn't spell out anything. But it does represent the massive shift our entire building made in one year of a five-year ramp up.
Read MoreOption B: Breathing Again
Dealing with grief was like building physical stamina: the more you exercise, the fast your heart rate recovers after it is elevated. And sometimes, during especially vigorous physical activity, you discover strength you didn't know you had.
Read MoreFacing adversity, building resilience, and finding joy
I am not friends with books. They are more like that annoying cousin you see a few times throughout the year, and when they're there, you feel obligated to spend time with them until they're gone.
That's my relationship with books.
Read MoreI don't always have to be the teacher
There have been times I've felt that it's my job and responsibility to educate and teach every student the difference between right and wrong.
There have been times where a student makes a mistake and I take the opportunity to explain why what they did was wrong.
And there have been times where I fail to notice that sometimes a mistake is simply a mistake and that students may actually have already learned their lesson before I intervene.
I need to remember that I don't always have to be the teacher.
No More Teacher Desk
This is my eighth year teaching and I've worked really hard to get rid of my desk. Of those eight years, over half of them I've gone without a traditional teacher desk.
A lot of substitutes are confused. And some of my teammates don't get it. But it's been one of the best things I've done for my class. Ever.
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