By: Toni M. Poling There is something about the first few days of the month of May that makes me happy. The air is perfumed with lilac and the books in my classroom windowsills are dappled with sunlight. If there was a Maypole outside, I wouldn’t be able to resist Read more…
By Toni M. Poling I value student voices. My students have opinions, lots of them, about everything! It’s very to become dismissive of a teenagers’ opinions; they’re often not well thought out, well researched, or well stated. But if I truly value student voices, it means I not only have Read more…
Beware the Ides of March: An Open Letter to New Teachers For the past decade or so, I’ve been supervising all of the student teachers in my building, as well as working with first year teachers in my county and department. My own learning during this process has been Read more…
Disrupting the Literary Canon: Culturally Responsive Pedagogy The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy Billy Buddby Herman Melville Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne These titles could have been pulled from any high Read more…
I remember vividly the first time I put my head on my desk and cried during my lunch period. The bell to end fourth period and move to lunch had just rung and a student was lingering behind asking me questions that had nothing to do with that day’s lessons. Read more…