My Blogging Plans

Below are my plans for blogging over the next two months. The bright blue indicates when posts will be published while the brigth yellow indicates important dates.

Popular posts from this blog

Teaching in the Classroom v. PD Session

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Without a doubt, I am a project-based teacher. I have set aside the "sage on the stage" mentality and have embraced my role as one that guides and facilitates learning for my students. If you walk into my classroom, chances are you will find me on the side, monitoring students, answering questions, or providing assistance where needed.


But during my professional development sessions, I'm back in front of the 'class', with the learning and focus back on me. I know that its true; after sessions I would be exhausted from all the talking and would walk away wondering if the attendees got anything from my presentations. While the official feedback from the attendees were mostly positive, my worries were confirmed with the constructive feedback that I needed to make it more hands-on.

#perfectionistsworstnightmare #imtheworst #whyme
Then I realized: I have *mostly* embraced failure in my classroom, but not in my professional development sessions. #fail

August rolled arou…
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THRIVE Everyday Every Day

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While many people believe that the best educators earn respect with grand gestures, Aaron Hogan disproves this final myth in the sixth chapter of Shattering the Perfect Teacher Myth. He insists respect and rapport from students is gained through everyday interactions and gives simple ideas to implement every day.

Its so simple. You don't have to do anything crazy, invest a ton of money, or take away from family time. You just need to do a few tiny things every day that show students that you care. As someone who is not the insanely outgoing and goofy teacher who has no fear, I appreciate that the 'little' things matter. I always try to be proud of my reserved manner and find beauty in it, but I still find myself beating myself up for not being the crazy, energetic that the myth requires.

My three thing I plan to add into my every day schedule:

Greeting students at the door - Hogan discussed how a daily routine or question will help you notice irregularities. A greeting is a…
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Embracing Failure: A Guest Post

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The following post is written by Benjamin Regonini, my boyfriend and most recent hire to the Minarets Social Science Department. After working for two and half years at a middle school, he joined the Minarets family in the middle of January. This is his debut as a blogger and below are his reflections of his first semester at Minarets:

Failure is something that is not often praised in today’s society, let alone the classroom. Yet, failure is essential in the learning process not just for students but for educators, students, businesses and even parenting. I was a middle school social science and AVID teacher for the past three years and I learned a lot about how to deal with and teach the maniacal and hormonal amalgamations that middle schoolers are. Half way through this past year, I applied for and was offered the position as a social science teacher at a high school. With much deliberation, as the middle school I was at was my first full time teaching position, I decided to accept t…
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