Reflecting & Storytelling About Teaching
Here’s how my second meeting with one class started last week, when three students opened up a chat on Google Meet:
1:16 PM
can i go to the bathroom
1:16 PM
we didn’t have to turn in a current event today right… Continue reading
Writing a letter to a politician is about as “civic” an assignment as we can do within our classroom walls, and it feels especially relevant in our polarized political climate. For the first two years that my U.S. history and civics students wrote these letters, though, I didn’t quite… Continue reading
It has been decades since I’ve wanted to live in the world of a fantasy novel as much as the one in Erin Morgenstern’s The Starless Sea. Entering the caverns of a vast secret underground library – one accessed through doors in our world both hidden and in plain sight – made me feel as if… Continue reading
We can link current events to what we teach in the classroom in at least two ways—through content and through character. With content, teachers sometimes wonder how they can justify adding current events to their lessons… Continue reading
For the past 18 years, I’ve taught at secular schools with their own rich sets of values. But Ariel Burger’s Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom brought back memories from my early teaching and, in the process, helped me with two teaching conundrums… Continue reading
In my 8th grade U.S. history and civics class, which I’ve taught for seven years, our unit on the Constitution has always challenged me because it raises so many questions about curriculum planning… Continue reading
Every year, teaching the Declaration of Independence daunts me. The possibilities for modern and historical connections are vast, and I wonder if I could be doing more to cement the favorable concepts from this founding document into students’ minds… Continue reading
