How do you create a welcoming classroom environment?  If you are expecting me to say it starts with compassion, understanding, and acceptance you will be disappointed.  No don't get me wrong, those things are important but my in my opinion before you can have you have an inclusive classroom you ne...

Isn't that why we became teachers.  To connect to our students and to leave a positive impact on the next generation.  What goal could be more worthwhile than that.  But the question then becomes, how do you connect to your students?

In my 20 years of teaching I thought about this question a lot ...

Talk about an ambitious goal.  Trying to change the culture of a school may seem overwhelming and often it is hard to figure out where to start.   

As the saying goes, "How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time".   

That is how you change the culture of a school.  One problem at a time.  

L...

How are you doing this school year?  When I talk to my colleagues and other teachers around the United States the feeling I get more often than not is that things are not going well.   I use to think it was just my school or my district but know I am under the impression is that the things we stru...

That is a question we had at my school.  

Toward the end of last year some major discipline issues irrupted which resulted in a brawl between 10 students.  It shook us to the core.  

We had so many questions, so little answers, and we demanded change.  

Our district and administration meet with u...

One of the great things about teaching is that is has many different built in breaks and ideal times to reset your classroom.  One of those perfect times is New Years.  

Think about it... No matter how awful your 2023 year was, you can start fresh in 2024.  What other job allows you that.  That is ...

The problems that had been brewing all year long erupted in a single moment at my school last year. 

The year had been filled with many smaller events and many unresolved systematic issues and within a couple of minutes it all came out when 10 students decided to fight. 

I can honestly say that th...

Let's start with this.  

There is no silver bullet and I still have kids in my class that choose not to work.  No matter how much I talk to them, try to inspire them, or even threaten them.  They just choose not to do the work. 

But there are those students in which I am able to break through thei...

Ready set go......

List 10 things as quickly as you can that we do as teachers in our classroom:

We are nurses

Counselors

Grades

Lesson Planning

Calling Home

Stopping kids from arguing

Cleaning up messes

Erasing things from books

Meetings

Lecturing

Let me count real fast.  Yup that was...

Do not try this in your classroom.  The "your momma jokes" are performed by a professional and telling of these jokes could cause harm to reputation.  

I repeat.  Do not try this in your classroom.  

I just had to get that public service announcement out of the way because your momma jokes in th...

Time....

Of course it takes more than time, but just like everything worth while in life it will take time to become the teacher that you want to be.  

How much time?

That is a hard question to answer.  For me it took 7 years.  7 years to finally fell comfortable in the classroom.  That may see...

My wife and I are reading a book on boundaries.  Well..... to be honest her and my daughter are reading a book on boundaries but they talk to me about what they are reading.  But I have lived long enough, read enough, and experienced enough to know boundaries are extremely important.  

If you find ...