The Power of Taking a Risk

Even though I spend a lot of the summer doing school work, I make a deliberate effort to stay away from school for the summer. Two days ago, I returned to my classroom for the first time since June 13th, our last day of school. I was meeting with some other department members to review … Continue reading The Power of Taking a Risk →

Giving Purposeful Homework Assignments

The word “homework” tends to evoke negative emotions for anyone associated with it-- students, parents, and even teachers. Students don’t like it because it often feels like a waste of time and like “busy work". It takes time and energy when they would rather be working at a job, playing a sport, or doing something … Continue reading Giving Purposeful Homework Assignments →

Helping Students Learn Good Study, Organizational, and Note Taking Skills in Your Content Area

Shortly after I earned my Bachelor’s Degree in English in 1990 and teaching jobs were hard to find, I worked as a substitute teacher at Foxborough High School, where I had done my student teaching the previous spring. One day, I was approached by the head of the Special Education Department, Roberta, who encouraged me … Continue reading Helping Students Learn Good Study, Organizational, and Note Taking Skills in Your Content Area →

Why Teachers Need Summer Vacation

I remember early on in my education classes in college…. The professor asked why we chose teaching as a career. I can still picture the woman who responded, “June, July, and August.” I remember chuckling but then realizing quickly that she meant it. She was serious. Without a doubt, it is nice - and I … Continue reading Why Teachers Need Summer Vacation →

Seemingly Insignificant Details You Might Overlook When Creating an Assignment

When we create assignments-a project, an essay, a quiz, a homework assignment, we focus on the content we are teaching and which standards we are addressing or assessing…. Those are at the heart of the assignment, the most important parts….. With that said, we often overlook the importance of seemingly little details…..how we write the … Continue reading Seemingly Insignificant Details You Might Overlook When Creating an Assignment →

Why I am Writing a Blog about Teaching

We might not knowingly think of the specific terms purpose and audience when we sit down to write something, but the odds are high that we have thought about them. Writing, in its simplest terms, boils down to 1. why we are writing and 2. for whom. A grocery list scribbled on a scrap piece … Continue reading Why I am Writing a Blog about Teaching →

The Joy of Creating Assignments

I remember a few years ago when I was working in my classroom one day after school. There was a substitute custodian who was in emptying the waste baskets and we started talking. He asked me how long I had been teaching. “Twenty years,” I told him. “It must not take you long to do … Continue reading The Joy of Creating Assignments →

Your Philosophy of Education and Why It Matters

I remember all of those education classes I took in college…. Actually, that is not exactly true. I remember taking a number of education classes, but, to be honest, they all sort of blend together in my mind. I remember many of them required twenty hours of classroom observations over winter and spring breaks followed … Continue reading Your Philosophy of Education and Why It Matters →

Physical Space: Creating a Welcoming Classroom Environment

Grafton High School, Room 205 1998-2012 For the first eighteen years of my teaching career, Room 205 was my home. It was a traditional high school classroom. Student desks were lined up in six rows, each with five seats. The teacher desk was in the front of the room and, eventually when the school became … Continue reading Physical Space: Creating a Welcoming Classroom Environment →