Teachers are pillars of the community and are esteemed as leaders of the educational system.  Our mannerisms, behaviors, speaking skills, and writing are taught, modeled, and reinforced.  We stand at our doors and encourage students to come into our room with open minds, ready to learn, practicing good citizenship or behavior.  As a middle/high school […]

I think I found the liquid gold for English Language Arts and reading teachers.  Determining the theme and how it develops is an ELA standard that begins at the elementary level, but it becomes more challenging as the text becomes harder to read.  This year, I am teaching seniors ELA, and they scored low on […]

Every new school year brings anxiety.  What are my students going to be like?  Will they like me? Respect me? Follow directions? Not a party in my room?  One way to calm all the jitters is to plan your classroom behavior management.  In Robert Marzano’s book Classroom Management that Works, he covers several topics from […]

                Yesterday, I read an article in one of my English teacher groups, and it touched my heart dearly.  The article was written by a veteran teacher, who shadowed two students for two days.  His personal reflection had me thinking about my own teaching style.  He stated that students sat in class without talking and […]

                After a less than stellar teacher walkthrough completed by my principal, I knew that I had to change my instruction strategy.  My old way of teaching was not working, and I knew that I had to design lessons that work for every student.  I began reading teachers’ professional books and focusing on learning.  I […]

Guest speakers for high school students can bring enrichment and liveliness to your students’ experience.  I can recall in middle school, we loved having guest speakers.  All the girls would murmur, “Did you hear, in Ms. Smith’s class, we’re having a guest speaker?” We would be on our best behavior to avoid any disruption in […]