Dear students,
Thank you for being you! I appreciate each and every one of you for being the awesome people that you are. Continue reading
At the beginning of every school year, I survey my (11th & 12th grade) students for several things, including ACEs and resilience (using the ACE survey and the resilience survey from ACEs Too High), as well as things like time commitments and learning profile.
When teachers say that we’re struggling, our friends, students, former students and parents of our students rush to comfort us, saying things like “you’re doing an amazing job, especially given the circumstances,” or “we’re lucky to have such amazing teachers.” Continue reading
Today I had one of my classes do a mini lab at home, to make a Cartesian Diver out of a plastic straw, an elastic (that’s a rubber band for those of you outside the Boston area), a few paper clips and a water bottle. Continue reading
I have observed a couple of disconcerting trends in my teaching career. Since I started teaching in 2003, students are struggling more, particularly with math and critical thinking, and students’ anxiety levels are skyrocketing.
Continue readingOne of my students who struggles with executive function and time management came by after school to drop off a bunch of missing assignments and to get a list of what she still needs to finish by the end of the quarter. She excitedly told me that she had worked out the problems she was having with getting her school work done and that she was on top of things and was catching up in all of her classes. I replied, “This sounds serious. I think we need to talk about it.” Continue reading
Today was the last school day before Christmas vacation. During my classes yesterday afternoon and today, I wished my students a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Blessed Yule, and a Happy Kwanzaa, Festivus, Saturnalia, Feast of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and a restful vacation. And then I addressed the rest of the class. Continue reading
As a teacher, I am entrusted with your children, no matter who they are or what they’re like. Every teacher has students we like and students we don’t particularly like; teachers who say otherwise are most likely not being honest with themselves. If you believe otherwise, try teaching physics to a bunch of students who haven’t learned trigonometry yet and see if you feel differently about the kid who’s on task, asks clarifying questions and tries to work out the example problems than you do about the kid who is continually talking over you about what a friend said during English class, or the kid who shouts out, “This is stupid! Why do we need to know this?” Continue reading
A common discussion among educators is about the student who acts out in class, reminding us that there are always reasons. Maybe this student suffers abuse or neglect at home. Maybe a close family member has had a major health episode or loss of job. Maybe the family lost their home. These things happen, and the student’s actions are often a red flag that can alert us to a situation that needs to be addressed compassionately. But this post is not about those students. This post is about the ones who are suffering, but who do not wave the red flag. Continue reading
I needed an after-the-exam project for my AP Physics 2 class, and we settled on a buoyancy project (Fluids is one of the topics.) of building a raft and using empty 2 L soda bottles as floats. Continue reading
