If you’ve followed our series on the importance of brain breaks in the classroom (especially brain break games), you know how passionate we are about the need for them. Not the fact that they’re nice, but that they’re a need. I’ll never forget the afternoon my students were slogging through a heavy document analysis, and … Read more
I once heard teaching described as “herding cats,” and I laughed because I’ve lived it. Not in my own high school history classroom (11th graders are a different kind of chaos), but in the elementary classrooms I’ve spent time in as a trainer and as a parent volunteer. I remember standing in a kindergarten classroom … Read more
The room was too quiet, and I knew that wasn’t a good thing. It was right after lunch, and I was standing in front of my high school juniors, watching their eyes glaze over as I walked through what I thought was a perfectly fine lesson on primary source analysis. Then one student raised his … Read more
The first time I realized the strategies for classroom management I was using weren’t working, I was standing near the pencil sharpener, watching a sophomore slam his chair into the floor for the third time that period. I’d told him “no” about something minor. Can’t even remember what it was now. What I do remember … Read more
The best collaboration project I ever ran started with a message on ePals. I created a profile seeking an international partner class to compare World War II family narratives, and a teacher in Germany reached out. He taught a similar age group and was covering the same period. We decided to have our students write … Read more
I was sitting at my desk during my planning period, grading a stack of essays from my high school history classes, when the guidance counselor appeared at my door. “Jenn, I just got a call from a parent. She wants to schedule a parent teacher conference. Her son’s grade has dropped significantly this quarter, and … Read more
I was on a call with a kindergarten teacher last fall. It was a virtual coaching session, the kind I do regularly with teachers who reach out for support outside of school hours. She looked exhausted. Her hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail. There were stacks of papers behind her on the table. … Read more
My third-period sophomores were presenting their history projects, and I couldn’t stop glancing at the classroom across the hall, where students were completing a similar project. Through the window in my door, I could see my co-worker’s students. They were standing at the front of her room, speaking with real authority, answering questions from their … Read more
I’ll never forget the look on my juniors’ faces. They filed in, grabbed their daily schedule sheet from me at the door, and sat down. But instead of the usual quiet rustle of backpacks and notebooks, I heard whispers. “What are we doing today?” “I don’t know, but it’s never boring.” One kid actually said … Read more
I was standing at the front of my fourth-period U.S. History class during the second semester of 2015, feeling pretty good about myself. I had spent the weekend crafting this incredible lesson on the New Deal, complete with primary sources and a mock congressional hearing. My sophomores were going to be so into it. About … Read more
My good friend, Dr. Joe Lizza, runs campus activities at Rowan University, and we chatted on my podcast about student life a while back. He told a fascinating story during the interview. It turns out, during the first months of COVID, when everything shut down, his team discovered that a surprising number of college students … Read more
I remember sitting in my classroom at 4:47 p.m. on a Tuesday, staring at a stack of essays I hadn’t touched in three days. The hallway had gone quiet an hour earlier. My coffee was cold. I had a splitting headache that had started somewhere around second period and never let up. A parent email … Read more
Most of us are trying to tackle the wrong one…and we’re starting the school year at a deficit instead of our nervous systems being back to 100%.
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