It is my belief that every day you have students in your classroom is a day to educate. That includes the very last days of school. As much as I yearned for the opportunity to slack off a little, maybe show a film adaptation of a novel we had read, I rarely gave my students…
lessons
Logophiles Anonymous
Hello, everyone. My name is Todd, and I am a logophile. Now, before you go running off to demand an apology from The Mailbox for allowing such trash to be printed on the Internet (you, in the back, stop laughing), let’s agree to a definition of logophile: logo-, a combining form meaning “word,” from Greeklógos“word,”…
Singing the Common Core Blues?
Was I destined to end up working for The Mailbox? That’s hard to say. Destiny is a difficult subject. Are teachers destined to always have to create their own supplemental materials? If I lingered around my blog for a few minutes, I bet I’d be able to make out many grumblings. With the emergence of…
Plot Points
Before the end of the school year sneaks up on you and wallops you upside the back of the head, stop right now and think about some of the lessons you’ve learned this year. If you haven’t noted the people you want to thank, the compliments you’ve wanted to give, or the ideas you’ve had…
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…