I can promise you that as educators that there are gonna be some days that break your heart. You are going to be left searching for meaning, and grasping for the right words to say. The heaviness of those moments will hang like a thick fog on a September morning, […]
Big Orange Fridays and Tennessee Football
As a kid, I remember listening to John Ward on the radio. His commentary brought the game alive. I grew up hanging on every word. Even today, I still go back and listen to his calls of Saturday gamedays. My first game (in person) was in 1980 against a loaded […]
Honey Bun Snacks and Student Discipline
I could do an entire blog on student discipline. I have worked in schools where student discipline was rarely a problem. I worked in a school where principals and assistant principals rewarded only the students who were struggling, and rarely recognized the kids who took care of business every day. […]
Authentic Professional Learning Communities – Part II
Continuing Education – A Better Approach. The very best professional development coordinator that I have ever worked with was a man who went by the name of Charles. He was our professional development coordinator at the time. He always had a wide range of pertinent speakers and collaborations available for […]
Are PLCs Really Learning Communities?
Professional Learning Communities. Three words which strike fear into the hearts of efficient educators. Ongoing education is important in any field, but rarely do I see other professions waste large portions of their employees’ workdays to do it. As you can tell already, I am not a huge fan of […]
The Importance of Great Discussion in the Classroom
Words are maybe mankind’s greatest tools. They cause civilizations to rise and civilizations to fall. They bind people together in marriage. They are able to bring us great hope. They are able to bring us great despair. Words can heal. They can tear apart. When our children speak their first […]
Teachers, Seek Balance in Your Lives and Know Your Market Value
Shawshank Redemption is such a great movie. Andy Dufresne has mad business skills. He convinces Captain Hadley that he can save him and his wife money. Word gets to the warden, and suddenly, Andy Dufresne has access to the financial records of the prison and the warden. Andy uses that […]
Virtual Field Trips
I love Google Earth. I am on it pretty much every day. You can go anywhere. If I am going on vacation, I use Google Earth to check out the area before renting. Students generally enjoy Google Earth as well, especially if they have been shown how powerful it is. […]
Freshman English and the Gift of a Professor
Literacy wasn’t my best subject as a kid growing up. In fact, I didn’t like it. When I got to the university level, I didn’t know how to write a cohesive essay. As providence would have it, I landed a great professor in freshman English of all places. It was […]
It is time to re-invent, re-think, and re-imagine the entire process of educating students…
To be blunt, we have too many people in the system of American education who are just blowhards. They sound good. Their presentations are well-polished. Fancy new acronyms are employed. Research from some obscure source supports their presentations- maybe even funded by the person talking. Everyone nods their heads in […]