Blog Posts
Manuel -- a former student -- called me a few nights ago. For two years, I'd been trying to find out what had happened to him; I'd heard only rumors.
Read More.I'm pretty disappointed in Barack Obama's selection of Arne Duncan for U.S. secretary of education. Devastated, to be honest. I don't get it -- a secretary of education who has never been a teacher? Who has never taught a single course? Who never attended a public school? Who doesn't...
Read More.The insomnia I attributed to the beginning of the school year, which I complained about in my first blog post, still hasn't gone away. A few nights ago, tormented, I woke up at 1 a.m. and began mulling over the crises and craziness I see every day in the...
Read More.The first thing I heard as I walked into school on this miraculous morning after Barack Obama's landslide victory was a group of African American parents talking about the results. One father said, "They didn't want to give us 40 acres and a mule, so we took fifty states and the White House...
Read More.This is the sixth part of a six-part entry. Start with the introduction.
Get help before you start and while you are trying to do the Four-Piece Plan to Peace. Don't wait to ask for help until after you've torn your hair...
Read More.This is the fifth part of a six-part entry. Start with the introduction.
When I refer to targeting students, I don't mean that I target them literally, of course, but you can fantasize about whatever you want. I do. Others...
Read More.This is the fourth part of a six-part entry. Start with the introduction.
If your reward system is strong, clear, and active, you won't have to put quite as much time and energy into your consequence system.
A...
Read More.This is the third part of a six-part entry. Start with the introduction.
How do you appreciate individuals, or table groups, or the whole class when students do what you ask them to do?
You've heard this before, and...
Read More.This is the second part of a six-part entry. Start with the introduction.
"They come into my room shouting, wandering around, and talking to one another. During class, they put on makeup, text message one another, and talk...
Read More."I feel like I'm playing Whac-A-Mole every day," said the beginning teacher as she wiped the sweat from her brow.
I nodded and had flashbacks of my own first months teaching middle school. The class is settled, focused, and calm for two seconds, and then pop! On the other side of the...
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