Tag: routine
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Storytelling with a Camera
Photography is weird. You’ve got the people who treat their cameras like they’re nuclear launch codes—checking every dial, obsessing over ISO like it’s some secret recipe. Then there are those who swear the perfect golden hour is the only time worth shooting. And don’t get me started on the endless debates about gear — “Full…
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An Educator’s Love Letter to Liquid Sanity
Let’s get one thing straight: coffee isn’t a luxury for teachers. It’s a survival mechanism. A coping strategy. A legal form of self-medication brewed in Keurig pods and staff lounge folklore. Coffee is what separates us from the animals.Also from the students.And occasionally from making deeply inappropriate remarks during professional development. To the untrained eye,…
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Year 26
25 years as an educator—and at least a dozen more before that coaching, mentoring, running camps, leading arts programs, and engaging in general kid-centered monkey business (some of which may have included dodgeballs, duct tape, and popsicle sticks). It’s been, quite literally, a lifetime of working with young people—changing lives, dodging glitter explosions, and watching…
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Tales from the Inside: The Usual Suspects (Lounge Cut)
It was the Thursday before the first day of school, and the teacher’s lounge had that eerie calm-before-the-storm vibe. You know the one—burnt coffee brewing, the hum of a vending machine that hasn’t accepted paper money since the Bush administration, and the distant cry of a copier that’s jammed again because someone tried to run…
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What Writing Looks Like (for Me)
I’ve always been drawn to creating things—music, sketches, photos, splashes of color and sound—but writing? That one snuck up on me. I didn’t grow up thinking I’d be a writer. I didn’t carry a journal or dream of publishing a book. But over the years, I started noticing little stories piling up—between mariachi gigs, painting…
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Designing for Redemption: Rethinking Grading and Growth in the Classroom
There’s something profoundly human about allowing a student the chance to redeem themselves—but redemption can’t be accidental or symbolic. It must be deliberately built into how we teach, assess, and relate to students. Too often, our systems—especially grading—treat learning like a one-shot game. A missed deadline, a failed quiz, or a moment of bad judgment…
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What Teaching Used to Be —and What We’ve Lost Along the Way
There was a time—not long ago—when teaching was built on short readings and long conversations. Classrooms echoed with curiosity. Students asked questions. Teachers asked even more.And the best days? The ones when we didn’t rush to answers. Yes, there was some drill and kill—rote memorization, timed facts, spelling tests.But it wasn’t the end goal.It was…
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What Drives Me
Over the course of my life, and career as an educator, I’ve been asked these questions more than once.I remember one time clearly—it was during a workshop on student resilience. Another time, it came up in a leadership meeting. We throw words like determination, persistence, discipline around like they’re universally understood. But the more I…
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Built By Hand
There’s something to be said about working with your hands. The whole DIY thing—patching a leaky faucet, sanding down a splintered door, fixing the fence before it falls over—doesn’t get the credit it used to. These skills were once passed down like family recipes or last names. Now they’re slipping away, replaced by apps, services,…
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More Than Words: How Quotes Spark Conversation and Learning
There’s something powerful about a well-timed quote. Maybe it’s a line from a movie that lingers long after the credits roll, or a phrase that echoes from history books. Quotes carry weight — and in the classroom, they carry possibility. Over the years, I’ve found that using quotes — from films, speeches, poems, and revolutionaries…
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More Than Just a Writing Lesson…
As a teacher, I made sure my students wrote every single day. It didn’t matter what subject I taught, or how much they wrote. What mattered was the act itself — showing up to the page. Every class began the same way: a writing prompt projected on the board, and five uninterrupted minutes to write.…
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It All Starts with a Question… and Not Just Any Question
It all starts with a question — and not just any question. Not the kind that seeks the right answer. Not the kind that checks for recall or makes sure the reading was done. But the kind of question that opens a door. That invites curiosity. That sparks a pause. The kind of question that…
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No Tricks, Just Routines: A Thought on Classroom Management
While flipping through an old journal, I came across a question I once jotted down — likely something I heard at a conference: “What is your best classroom management trick?” I smiled when I read it, because I remember my answer clearly — and I stand by it: Tricks and gimmicks for class management eventually…
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More Than a Lesson: The True Impact of Teaching
Today, as I was accepting invitations to the annual professional development opportunities offered to educators at the start of each school year, I remembered a quote I heard at one of these “PD days” a few years back — and it got me thinking: “If I am not an improved version of myself by the…
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Coloring Inside the Lines… and Knowing When to Go Beyond Them
“Color inside the lines.” It’s one of the earliest rules we give children when they’re learning how to draw. And in many ways, it reflects a larger idea in how we’ve traditionally approached learning: follow directions, stay within the structure, do what’s expected. There’s a place for that. Boundaries are important. They help students develop…