One of the most common challenges when choosing a new teacher planner is finding one that meets all a teacher’s needs. I would often have my school planner for my day-to-day and a separate personal life planner. It was such a waste of space and time (and I never had the one I needed where … Read more
Teachers are unique in that we are always trying to find ways to hone in on our craft, and yet we often don’t have the time or the resources to do it effectively. How many times have you attended a stellar PD workshop and then never actually got a chance to implement what you learned … Read more
We are constantly hearing about “classroom management”, but definitions of what that means seem to vary greatly. While some think it’s about behavior, others think it’s about culture, and some others even consider it academic. What’s classroom management? It’s a delicate balance between all of these factors. Classroom management is what we need to make … Read more
All teachers are expected to have a classroom management philosophy, but what does this actually mean (and what should it look like in a 21st-century classroom)? The answer to that question depends on three things: the teacher’s purpose, the learners’ needs, and a good understanding of how young people develop in a digital age. In … Read more
When people first begin thinking of the concept of Brain Breaks, they often think of children in an elementary school classroom playing some type of silly game. The fact of the matter is brain breaks are effective for anyone at any age, especially high school students who need short breaks just as much as anyone. You … Read more
The best part about teaching primary school students is that for those first years, so many of them are excited about learning. Every day is a new adventure and it isn’t as difficult to get student buy-in for whatever silly lesson you have planned for that day. This doesn’t mean that lesson planning for the … Read more
Utilizing small group instruction is not a new concept in education. However, in terms of student learning, there is often a grey area about what the best practices are for making this education model effective for individual students and lesson objectives. Using small group planning and instruction consistently serves a bit of a different purpose … Read more
As time marches forward in education, we are finding that students are becoming micromanaged to a fault. Whereas teachers have the responsibility of making sure that their students learn the specific curriculum and content material, it is creating a generation of students who don’t know how to take initiative and find out the answers to … Read more
Listen to Episode 13 of the Student-Centered World Podcast above, “What Do You Do With a Toxic School?” I once saw on Facebook the plight of a teacher who had a total administrative, unannounced observation the morning after returning from winter break. This is the stuff of school culture nightmares. That first day back from … Read more
AI for Education is revolutionizing the way we learn and teach. There is a lot of fear on behalf of those in education in regard to how this will affect the learning experience for our students. The use of artificial intelligence in the classroom, or even the potential of AI interference in learning, is a … Read more
ChatGPT is a new artificial intelligence software that will answer a prompt with a detailed response. This program from OpenAI does require registering for an account (including using a valid phone number) but has no cost associated with it. Once you register, you can ask it anything you would like and it will give you … Read more
The Expanded ADEPT Support and Evaluation System is used in South Carolina for teacher observation and evaluations. ADEPT Observations are conducted by principals, instructional coaches, or other trained evaluators. Teachers are rated in each of five performance categories on a scale of 1 to 4. The evaluation system was designed with the belief that teachers possess … Read more