Category: education
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Finally
After seven years of teaching, I will finally get to teach what I entered the teaching profession to teach, social studies and only social studies. I have talked about how my decision to be pragmatic pigeonholed me into subjects that I appreciated personally but disliked teaching. Now, more than two years after deciding to hold…
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A Field Day Story
[Editor’s Note: I wrote this about a month ago, near the end of May. I have gotten a bit lax with my posts and writing for various reasons but I hope to pick that back up soon.] My current school goes all out for field day, something I experienced for this first time this year.…
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Avoiding Burnout
A few months ago I wrote this post. Amongst several unfinished, handwritten entries, this one fell through the cracks so I am bringing it back now. Back in early February, I reached an unfamiliar point. I woke up on a Thursday morning, utterly drained, emerging from a dream, a nightmare, that left me worse off…
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Developing Patience
As a child and young adult, I would never have used the word “patient” to describe myself, far from it. I had a low tolerance for others who struggled to finish things at the pace I considered normal. Obviously, this sort of mindset works detrimentally in my chosen profession and perhaps contributed to my struggles…
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Echo Chamber
Right now, my 8th graders are crafting arguments. We have spent the past few weeks working through various aspects of writing and analyzing arguments, things like the basic parts, types of credible evidence, understanding counterclaims and how to disprove them and how to explain how the evidence proves the claim. Back when I first introduced…
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Unprofessional Behavior
A few Fridays ago, I witnessed some examples of clique-ish, childish behavior amongst my grade level colleagues. I will not describe the events in detail. However, I will summarize them as typical “mean girls’” behavior such as having conversations with the whole group sans myself in a closed room and also ending conversations when I…
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A Day in the Life – Teaching through a Pandemic Edition
A week and a half or so ago, I wrote this day in the life. It should illustrate for you the demands on a teacher’s time as well as my own attempt to balance my own mental and physical health. 5:45-6:05My alarm first goes off at 5:45. I feel tired still so I get out…
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Like Butter Scraped Over Too Much Bread
Bilbo Baggins best described how teachers and so many people involved in education feel. Teachers already juggle so much but now the workload has doubled or more with this new school year. We have the same amount of hours in the day yet the laws of physics (and time) bend for no one. I wrote…
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Gone Too Soon
Nine years ago I taught what I thought would be my last year, only my second year. I taught some cool kids that I remember but only vaguely. I focused on surviving, not building relationships with the kids. Thus, when two years later a plane crash in Alaska claimed the life of one of my…
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Mental Organizing
Over the years I have discovered that I think better when I have a clean, organized space. Even the act of organizing helps relieve mental tension. Yet, many systems in my life still persist that support disorganization and I deal with these systems every time something changes, usually with the start of a new school…