Short on time? Listen to this blog post instead! Near the end of the school year, many new teachers ask themselves a simple yet crucial question: Did I make the right decision to go into teaching? Is it worth the low pay lack of respect lack of resources unreasonable expectations disrespectful students rude parents and […]
Teaching
Epic collaboration between students made simple with Google Docs
I remember “back in the day” when I would do an assignment – be it an essay, math worksheet, science lab, etc. – and if I wanted to have someone proofread it for me, I had to physically give it to them. Or if we were doing a group assignment, we’d have to all copy […]
Does using tech in your teaching make you a better teacher?
Many schools across the world have been given the gift of technology. While tech in classrooms is nothing new (I mean, we had computers back in MY day), the scale and magnitude of its deployment has transformed the way many of us teach. Quite a few classrooms have adopted a 1-to-1 model where every student has […]
How to use Google Forms Choice Eliminator
Have you ever been to a last-minute potluck where the host told you to just bring something? With no direction, you whip up a HUGE batch of your grandma’s killer potato salad recipe. Eager to wow the crowd, you go all out with the garnishments! Once you arrive at the potluck, you’re irritated to find that […]
How to plan a lesson that will keep your students engaged and on-task
Short on time? Listen to this blog post! As a beginning teacher mentor, I have the privilege of helping our future educators wrap their brains around the many components of teaching. This requires me to get my own brain back into what it felt like to start out – the details I would miss, what […]
Why effective lesson planning leads to good classroom management
The average teacher probably handles classroom management and lesson planning as separate entities. I know I do, especially since it seems like once you have your classroom management plan in place, you just have to worry about enforcing it. This leaves open the mental space to tackle everything else involved with teaching. I was recently […]
6 foundations of teaching to focus on in your first year
I’ll bet that some of you are reading this blog post in an attempt to distract yourself from the crushing amount of work you need to do. Perhaps it’s 10:00 PM, and you still don’t know what you’re teaching tomorrow. Even worse, it’s now 11:00 PM, you don’t know what you’re teaching tomorrow, and you […]
What to do when you get an angry parent email
Like many of you reading this, I’m both a parent and a teacher. Wearing these hats has given me a unique perspective while also a disadvantage – I just might think I know more than my daughter’s teachers. Admittedly, this sounds terrible, but every parent/teacher is guilty of this. You look at the work they take […]
