Making the classroom resemble the workplace is tricky. The first issue is whether or not a classroom should feel like a workplace. Is the classroom meant to be a laboratory for learning, or a place to practice for particular jobs? …
True, contemporary classrooms are meant to be bustling hubs of activity. At all grade levels, the expectation is students will learn by doing and interacting. Keeping these classrooms humming would seem to require an extroverted person who exudes a certain …
There’s more to school than reading, writing, and arithmetic. School is perhaps a student’s first interaction with a social environment outside of his or her own family. It is important that we create environments in which students can grow into …
Little in American culture represents spring the way baseball does. It doesn’t just represent spring, though. It’s an inextricable part of the season in this country. At this time of year, with the days getting longer and the temperature rising, …
Everyone has a story. When we fail to understand others’ stories, we fail to understand their experiences, their perspectives, and their struggles. We can’t truly know someone without knowing his or her narrative. Case in point: I tutored a student …
Whether teaching or tutoring, a harsh truth awaits the instructor. At some point, a student is going to refuse to cooperate. That student might progress from being obstinate to being outright antagonistic. The instructor could have difficulty mustering the patience …
Health instruction typically isn’t controversial. Discussions of sex education are the most common exception. More conventional units on fitness, safety, and overall wellness tend to pass without incident. Similarly, nutrition lessons rarely create any tumult. A unit that examines vegetarianism …
On my desk right now is a book titled Four Days to Glory: Wrestling with the Soul of the American Heartland. I don’t plan to read it. In fact, I don’t even like wrestling. It’s on my desk waiting for …
Snowflakes, fingerprints, whatever cliché you want to reference, we know all students are unique. The question is how do we educators avoid rote, the belief that students can obtain knowledge through inflexible repetition and memorization? I worked with a student …
Student writing portfolios make sense as assessment tools in English language arts classes, but they have broader utility. Not only can teachers employ these across content areas as meaningful forms of assessment, they can help students build them to be …