I am not a math guy. Just saying “I am not a math guy” is something that registers high on the Richter Scale of Understatement. Yet there are times when I must put this fact of life aside and apply myself to a mathematical undertaking. Whether it is helping my kids with their geometry homework…
Language Arts
That First Open House
Do you remember your first school open house? Or do I need to ask Dr. Peabody and Sherman for their Wayback Machine again? Because I sure remember mine. Back then, I was the new deputy on the dusty streets of middle school, flush with the power of my own corner classroom and a license to…
The Challenge of Class Size, Part Two
For every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction. For every outsize class bursting a room at its seams, there’s an equal and opposite small class, begging for intimacy and intensity. As I noted previously, in my third year of teaching I had a class that required every available desk in my room. Thirty-one students….
The Challenge of Class Size, Part One
The time: My third year of teaching. The place: My classroom. The point: Thirty-one desks in my classroom, thirty-one students coming through the door for a language arts class. The result: Awkward. Keep in mind that I had, of course, seen my class lists, but the actual appearance of those thirty-one students in my classroom…
The Shoes of a Marathoner
Writing an inspiring blog post is sometimes like trying to capture lightning in a bottle. In other words, it’s a piece of cake. Obviously. Spending a productive day in the classroom is the same thing. It’s easy to stay inspired and find creative solutions to classroom challenges whenever they arise. People think teaching is hard,…
Girls and Boys and Math and Science
Stepping into Mrs. G.’s classroom was like stepping into another dimension for me. By merely walking through our adjoining closet, I could appear at the front of her room and quickly get questions answered or share important news. Mrs. G. taught math. I taught language arts. Our classrooms connected. Our subject matter? Not so much….
Teaching Current Events in the Upper Grades
How do you teach currents events when those events invade your classroom? I ask this because there’s a tremendous amount of significant news coming from all corners of the world today, and sometimes it takes just one student’s raised hand to move your lessons in unexpected directions. In 2001, I had been a teacher just…