What’s Your Why?

I was sitting in a faculty meeting last week, and the line was used about how teaching isn't a job, it's a ministry. It was hard not to cringe because I've heard this line used so many times to gaslight and guilt trip burned out teachers into meeting every possible need except their own. Thankfully,...

Trying New Things: An Unofficial #IMMOOC Post

It's been an odd school year for me. I have a lot of freedom and very little to lose, so it's been a year of throwing caution to the wind and trying new things. I tried the Global Innovation Exchange Challenge, Genius Hour, StrengthsExplorer, and most recently, I ditched our traditional grammar textbooks in favor...

Exploring Genius

In addition to the StrengthsExplorer curriculum that started the year (I have students writing personal narratives based on their strengths right now - I'll let you know how that goes after we get past the first drafts), I've also been exploring the idea of doing Genius Hour with my students. I've admitted before and I'll...

The gears are still turning.

I got a call from a teacher friend yesterday.  She calls a lot, actually.  She likes to use me as a sounding board as she plans out her curriculum and lesson plans.  Yesterday she was formulating a plan for an independent reading project, but over the years and countless phone hours we've hashed through job applications,...

Teacher Strengths: Individual and Universal

Subbing in three different schools at once offers some unique insight into the teaching world.  I think I notice it more now because the three schools I'm in now vary so widely in size and demographic.  Between my observations of teachers in each setting and my conversations with my personal teacher friends, I've thought a...

A Contrast in Attitudes

Through circumstances that can only be considered coincidence, I've found myself reading a lot about the educational situation in Pakistan lately.  OK, I've read two books related to the topic, which isn't a lot, but enough to get me thinking - especially since I never really set out to learn about it in the first...

Change Happens.

Life is full of change, completions and beginnings, starting over and moving on.  I attended a college graduation party this weekend.  We had senior awards chapel this morning in school, and in a little over a week, those seniors will graduate high school.  This is the time of year that we celebrate all that.  This...

Let’s Fix it With a Petition! (…or not)

About two months ago, the principal made an announcement to the school informing everyone that he'd hired a former student to be a new English teacher next year.  Given my tentative situation as a long-term sub, all my students assumed that meant he'd hired another teacher instead of hiring me on permanently.  They came rushing up to...

Practical Education

"Are you going to teach us how to do taxes?" The question caught me off guard.  Taxes belong in a life-skills or applied mathematics course, not English.  However, I followed her logic and addressed her question.  We were talking about writing resumes (as part of their career research project), and in her mind she associated...

Don’t Forget About the Books! (a commentary on classroom technology)

I may step on some toes with this one, but if what I'm about to say bothers you, just know that I'm speaking from a very specific point of view (that of an English teacher).  I'm not opposed to the overall presence of technology in education; I just don't want too much of it in...