Pedagogy

Not one time in my 4-year undergrad teaching program or my 2 years of graduate school did anyone ever teach me about parent communication. So naturally, I went into my first teaching job blindly unaware of how much of my job would be communicating with parents. I was 22 but

Hi, my name is Rebecca, and I am addicted to The Home Edit. If you spend more than 5 seconds with me, you will hear me talking about Joanna and Clea like they are my next-door neighbors. Why do I love them so much? Because they love systems and I

I know we do Teacher Appreciation week in May, but let’s be real, teachers deserve to be celebrated EVERY MONTH ALL YEAR. So no matter what time of year you find yourself reading this, I want you to know that you are appreciated and you ARE impacting the lives of

When I look back at all the resources, the programs, and the trainings that helped me in my years teaching full time with 5 preps, one of the biggest game-changers was having a high school T.A. Being a teacher is HARD, and many of us have very limited resources. But

I’ve never been a huge fan of group projects. When I got my first official teaching job, it was at a large public high school where I was one of FOUR biology teachers. I found out on my first day that admin expected us to do everything, and I mean

My favorite classes in high school and college were the ones where teachers really talked to us and allowed us to share our thoughts and questions freely. Because of this, I have made it a priority to engage students in discussions from the very beginning of my teaching career. Even in my student teaching experience, it has been a critical component of my classroom culture. I’ve been in 3 different schools since then, all with a variety of student populations, and have been able to see their effectiveness in these very diverse environments. This has led me to think of them as even more important than I once did. Why??⁣

Teaching is about so much more than the content we share with our students. My most memorable teachers are the ones that I felt really knew me and cared about me. If we want our students to know that we are their allies, it starts by building relationships with each one.⁣⁣ But where to begin?

I learned MANY important lessons from this group, but one that really stands out to me that I held on to for years after was to ask for help. One afternoon after a particularly rough period I approached a veteran teacher in my hall and she taught me about using Board Points. Over the years her tip has grown to be my favorite whole-class classroom management strategy.

Travel to any classroom across the world and you will find teachers with mixed opinions about the use of technology in the education of their students. But nowadays it really isn’t avoidable anymore, and thus the questions have evolved from, “Should we use technology?” to “How much should we use it? What are the most effective tools for use? Are students really engaging with these methods?”