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…
We all have our back-to-school rituals, and they are sacred: fresh notebooks, pens in all the colors of the rainbow (because we haven’t lost any yet), a well-organized classroom library that will be pilfered and picked through soon enough. One of the most important parts of establishing a writing community Read more…
By Adrin Fisher Not to date myself, but when I was in eighth grade, there was this thing called diagramming sentences. There was a lot of diagramming sentences in my English class: we headed to the blackboard and grabbed some chalk with our homework papers held in sweaty fists, filling Read more…
Sitting down at night (for maybe the very first time all day), my legs still feel like they’re moving, my feet still pounding against the hard, tiled floors of my classroom as I dance from one side to the other, gesticulating in sweeping motions that match the fire and energy Read more…
BY: LIZ KEIPER Here’s a list of three (of the many) things I struggled with as an English teacher during my first few years of teaching: How to teach vocabulary in a meaningful context in a way so that students would actually learn the words and incorporate them into their Read more…