About the Author: Jenn Breisacher
I still remember the moment in the spring of 2016 when a student raised his hand not to answer a question, but to ask one that stopped me cold. “Mrs. B,” he said, “why are we learning about the Treaty of Versailles the exact same way every single class learns everything else? Read the chapter, … Read more
I remember the exact moment a teacher I was coaching realized she had completely lost one of her students. She had been struggling to reach this particular kid for weeks. No eye contact. No participation. Assignments were turned in blank or not at all. She told me about it during one of our coaching calls, … Read more
I remember the exact moment I realized that “just try harder” wasn’t going to cut it anymore. It was the second semester with a group of high school juniors in a World History class. I had spent the previous evening meticulously crafting what I thought was a genuinely interesting lesson on the Silk Road, complete … Read more
I remember the first time I tried to teach the Age of Absolutism to a room full of 11th graders who were far more interested in whether we’d have a snow day than in the power structures of 17th-century France. I had spent hours crafting what I thought was a brilliant lecture, complete with detailed … Read more
I remember the first time I handed a blank map of Europe to a class of high school sophomores and asked them to sketch the borders from memory. Most couldn’t place Poland relative to Germany. A few labeled France where Spain should be. One student, completely earnest, drew a single large blob and wrote “USSR???” … Read more
I still remember the first time I projected an image of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam onto my classroom screen during my second year of teaching World History. A student in the back row, the kind who had perfected the art of looking attentive while mentally checking out, suddenly leaned forward. “Wait,” he said, squinting at the nearly … Read more
I still remember the exact moment I realized how badly I had misread a student’s disengagement. It was my third year in the classroom, and a 10th grader sat in the back row of my World History class, hoodie up, head down, contributing absolutely nothing. I assumed he didn’t care about the material, that he … Read more
After 17 years in the classroom, I learned that the most dangerous thing in a room isn’t a disruptive student…it’s a silent one. The first time I realized student apathy has nothing to do with laziness, I was staring at a former student who’d failed my history class but could recite the damage-per-second stats of … Read more
I was standing in front of my period-four U.S. History class, midway through the second semester, when I realized not a single student was looking at me. I had a meticulously crafted lesson on muckrakers and trust-busting, complete with primary source photographs and what I thought was a compelling discussion prompt about corporate power. A … Read more
The first time I realized something had fundamentally shifted in the classroom wasn’t during a difficult lesson. It was during one of those low-stakes, can’t-fail activities I’d used for years in my high school classrooms. My juniors stared at me like I’d asked them to perform surgery. These weren’t hostile or disruptive kids…they just refused … Read more
I still remember the exact sound. It was a Tuesday in late October, second period, my 9th-grade world history class. We were mid-discussion about the Treaty of Versailles, and for one of those rare, precious moments, nearly every student was locked in. Hands were going up. Students were responding to each other without my prompting. … Read more
The classroom discipline plan you used five years ago probably won’t cut it today. I have worked with many K-12 teachers over the past several years, watching talented educators struggle with behavior problems that their training never prepared them for. The old model of posting classroom rules, listing consequences, and hoping that punitive measures would … Read more