Grades for the third quarter were due today… I must say this, I hate letter grades! No I love them! No I hate them! I cannot decide! I get like this at the end of every quarter. I have a love/hate relationship with our letter grade system. At times I think it’s an accurate representation [...]
According to my contract, I am a high school social studies teacher responsible for teaching those subjects (World History, U.S. History, Psychology, Sociology, Government, and Economics) and for sponsoring the book club. Missing from that contract is all the other things I do on a weekly basis. I am the class of 2011 sponsor, an [...]
I have always thought of myself as a geek, a nerd, a dork, and my students routinely confirm this fact. So what? I am proud to identify as a history, psychology, sociology, economic, government, philosophy, and theatre geek! And as a directive to all teachers out there: Let out the inner geek! Education would be [...]
The other day my high schoolers started to jokingly refer to me as their mom… which brought up an interesting dilemma. What is my role as the teacher? Am I part mom, part educator? Or, do I just focus on the academic education of my students? In a way, this dilemma is less of a [...]
Remember, remember the fifth of November The gunpowder treason and plot, I know of no reason Why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot. – Commemorating Guy Fawkes I have two simple questions to pose today. How many students in high school know who Guy Fawkes was? How many only know because of a graphic [...]
A major problem in education is poor communication between the various interested parties. What role are parents expected to play? How should financial supporters influence the process? What responsibilities are left to students? Which objectives do teachers give priority? What are the responsibilities of school administrators? Now here’s the thing… if we ran our companies [...]