I recently delivered a Together Teacher professional development workshop to a great high school in Harlem. Afterwards, I spent time with the principal, Lisa F., discussing ways we could make sure the new habits would really stick. Lisa pondered for a bit, and then...
Good Organization = Good Data = Good Instruction
This post is about one of my favorite classrooms, Jenny C.’s Kindergarten in Brooklyn. I’ve known Jenny for over five years. She’s featured in my book, and she’s the type of teacher I hope my own daughter has in a few years. Full disclosure: Jenny’s classroom has...
Systems Tweaking: Returning Graded Work
I like to remind people that it may be hard to get HOURS back in your day, but it is much easier to get back minutes—both yours and your students’. Tess H., a middle school teacher in Philadelphia, recently shared how her systems for returning student work have...
Happy 2013! Schedule a Hot Chocolate Break!
Let’s be honest. . . Sometimes all of this planning, scheduling, sorting, filing, and more planning just gets EXHAUSTING. We know why we do it: It makes us better teachers, and hopefully gives us more free time and less work to take home. But still, it’s tiring. There...
With Sadness and Anger
With Sadness and Anger It’s easier to stick to planners, calendars, To-Do lists, PD materials, electronic notebooks and uplifting stories of teachers working hard every day than express to you my feelings about the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut....
FAQ: How Do I Clean Up My Clipboard?
We teachers cannot live without our clipboards. To this day, I cannot teach without a clipboard in hand. It’s like my security blanket; I feel safely wrapped up with my pacing guide, anecdotal notes, and lesson plans. The challenge, of course, is that clipboards get...
Flexing Your Outlook Muscles!
We know many of you use Outlook in your schools—particularly for e-mail and calendar features. Here are a few things we love about how Cole F., a teacher in Harlem, uses Outlook to manage his time. We encourage you to steal some of his tricks! Time scheduled for...
December Contest [Enter by 12/21]! And, Meet Chloe the Velcro Gal!
I recently received these photos from our reader Chloe the Velcro Gal! She was not to be outdone by Keith the Rubberband Man! All teachers I meet are on a quest for an efficient tool to carry as they teach, monitor, grade, plan, call, meet and so on. . . They search...
International Binder Week
Student organization is TOUGH. This topic comes up as a request in every single workshop we give. So, I was very, very happy when I found this video from Harriet Tubman Charter School in New Orleans. It’s so awesome, you’ll want to watch it again…and again…and again....
Meet Keith: The Rubberband Man!
While it may not feel like it sometimes, each of us only has two hands, an occasional pocket, and maybe a lanyard to hang on to our keys, our lesson plans, our writing implements, our plans for prep periods, our attendance sheets, our demerit trackers, and all those...