One of the most leading factors in teacher burnout, especially while teaching during a pandemic, is seeing a million fixable problems around you but not having the time, energy, or resources around you to fix them all. I know what I was feeling for most of this year is something that resonates ... READ the POST
Teacher Burnout Strategies: How to Save Time Grading and Planning and on Everything Else To Do Tonight
I would argue that teacher burnout is the second pandemic of the 21st century. There are more demands than ever on our time, energy and creativity. When that happens, it's easy to get sucked into inefficient systems or anxiety-driven to-do lists, which makes us work later, which drains more energy, ... READ the POST
A 3-Minute, 5-Question Strategy to Transform Misbehavior
Hands-down the BEST PD I have ever taken was a 30-hour course on Positive Behavior Facilitation. PBF is a course based on a book written by Dr. Edna Olive called, aptly, Positive Behavior Facilitation (you can grab your copy here). Positive Behavior Facilitation was the first concrete set of ... READ the POST
Teacherpreneurship and Passive Income: Why You Should Start Yesterday
Teacher friends, there’s a way to both help your finances and make an impact that not enough people are talking about. I'm not talking about cutting out that drive-through coffee. Or working that second job after school. I'm talking about using your skills to make passive income. What is ... READ the POST
A List of What to Prepare for Parent-Teacher Conferences
So. You're starting to roll in those parent-teacher conferences on your schedule, and you're starting to wonder....what in the WORLD are we going to talk about, and how can I prepare? I remember in the days leading up to my first conferences, veteran teachers were constantly slipping things into ... READ the POST
My Favorite Lesson Plan for Teaching Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning
Let's face it. Teaching argumentative writing is hard. Each year I teach it, I always know it's going to be one of the most energy-taxing units of the year. The art of creating a well-crafted argument is challenging for most students--let's be real, most people, young or not--and facilitating a ... READ the POST
A Solution for Pencil Sharpener Woes
The beginning of the school year is upon us, and with it, all the little management problems from last year that we’d like to improve this year. Today, I’d like to talk about a big one for me. That problem is: when and how should students sharpen their pencils? To a non-teacher, that ... READ the POST
Why Your Lesson Plans May Not Be Working
This post is an excerpt from my online course, The Ultimate New Teacher Summer Workshop. The typical lesson plan template has a few basic things: learning objective, materials needed, opening, closing, and assessment. Following these templates, it’s no wonder that so many new teachers struggle ... READ the POST
Education as a Tool for Social Justice in America’s Prisons
Readers, I am excited to introduce to you what I hope to be the first of many more guest posts. A big thanks to the folks at Teach.com for helping make this happen about such an important topic, and for Sheldon Soper for all his work. If you think you might be interested in collaborating ... READ the POST
50+ Ideas for Publishing Student Writing
So, it's the end of your writing unit, your students have worked their tails off on their work, and you know they need some way to get their writing in front of eyes other than yours. Writers write for a million reasons, but most don't write just to be graded. Let's be real, though: coming ... READ the POST