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I Never Thought About That What If My Assumptions were Wrong By: Laura McDonell
Listen The Student Perspective Seeing things from the student’s perspective is challenging. After watching one of Dr. Kevin Leichtman’s videos, I realized that there might be a few things regarding education that I have never thought about. Understanding motivations behind student actions is a priority. The Perfect Ten offered me...
Dear First Year Teacher by Hollie Hamaker
Listen Dear First Year Teacher, Let me start by thanking you for joining the teaching profession. I am sure many have tried to scare you away. But you chose to become a teacher anyway. Although the statistics vary, roughly 20 to 30 percent of teachers quit in their first...
A New Way To Improve: What it Looks Like to Get 1% Better Each Day By Laura McDonell
Listen Last weekend I was inspired by a story. Chris Nikic became the first person with down syndrome to complete an Ironman triathlon (2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride, and 26.2-mile run completed in under 17 hours). Completing an Ironman Triathlon requires grit, determination, perseverance and stamina that most people only...
Reformation: Identifying Sources of Inspiration
Listen One of the purposes of this series of articles was to talk about schools, leaders, administrators, philosophers of education, technologists, architects, and teachers who were visibly succeeding in education and making an impact. But our eleven schools are notably only a small sampling. Since beginning this series, we’ve heard...
Reformation: Creating or Redefining Your Purpose Statements
Listen In our last article, we shared some of the mission statements, vision statements, and value lists for some of the top schools in the world. As we looked through these statements, we were really inspired to work on our own statements. Many, if not all, schools and districts have...
Checking in on Mental Health
Listen We have written a lot about mental health in the last 6 months since the world seems to have gotten turned upside down, but that’s just how important of a topic it is! While most of this seems to have started with the COVID-19 pandemic back in March, the...
How to Be an Approachable Leader
Listen We’ve all had an administrator say that their door is always open, only to find out it was just something they said. Their door is literally closed nearly every time you walk through the office. Perhaps their door is always open, but they are never in there, so what...
Teaching Culturally Responsive Literature: Part 3, Hispanic/Latinx Literature
Listen Students of Latin heritage cannot be placed into a box, though they are often stereotyped. While there are 20 countries in Central and South America, many teachers just assume that Hispanic students are of Mexican descent. Trouble with the English language is often quite incorrectly associated with an...
Teaching Culturally Responsive Literature: Part 2, African American Literature
Listen Many teachers and administrators are grappling with how to address the social concerns that the recent events in our country have brought up. The truth is that the protests and riots have only brought to the forefront issues that our students carry with them into our classrooms every day. ...
Peer Leadership
Listen Teachers are often required to participate in and lead committees, invited to lead grade level or department teams, or asked to mentor others. Unfortunately, along with the added responsibilities, there is often no real information on what they are supposed to be doing as leaders in those positions. Aside...
Resilience for Teachers
Listen Read Resilience became a buzzword in classrooms across the land in regards to students, but it really needs to be common among adults in conversations about our own personal emotional health. Don’t believe that? Well, here’s a little detail that may change your mind: the first ingredient for building...
Teaching Low-Achieving Elementary Students in the General Education Environment
Listen Read In 1975, the first version of what we now know as the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) was passed. Amendments passed in 1990, 1997, and finally in 2004 to create what we now know as the document that ensures children with disabilities receive a “free and appropriate...