A Teacher's Ruminations

What temptations would you be better off removing from your life? This was a recent question from the Thought Questions website . It is a great one for me because temptations sometimes stand in the way of realizing some of my goals. Although getting rid of some temptations (candy and gum come to mind) would make my life better, there is one that stands out for me right now: b eing connected for way too many hours of the day. There are so many things happening online that I want to be a part of and they seem to be multiplying all the time. Twitter chats, new apps, online book clubs, Facebook updates, Voxer groups and on and on and on. And, I want to be a part of all of it. So, I sign up or subscribe to all of them and then wonder why I can't keep up with everything.  Well, duh!  OK. So, I'll say it again: being connected 24/7 is my greatest temptation and removing it from my life completely would be disastrous as I learn so much from my virtual contacts. These social media ...

One of my 7th grade students loaned me a crown shortly after the Christmas break. I'm supposed to wear it for the rest of this school year. You see, I've been proclaimed the queen of our class by my students. I've promised to be the best teacher I can be and to take their needs and interests to heart. I had to kneel down to take this oath. Shortly thereafter, my students decided that they would like to wear the crown on their birthdays.Then, one student put forth a motion about what they named "Crown Day" and the rest of the class took turns amending the motion. Several revisions and lots of conversations later, my class drafted and voted on our first class law. This process took place during our social studies class and in between a fire drill. It was a great experience in parliamentary procedure. Here's our class resolution. Crown Day! On people’s birthdays they will be allowed to wear the crown during class time. If their  birthdays are during ...

Disclaimer: I apologize to those of you who may think this is not a typical Slice of Life posting, but I've been thinking a lot about bullying lately and I've got to write this down. Source: http://bit.ly/1cmUJd5 I don't know anyone who hasn't experienced or witnessed bullying at some point during their lifetime. And, when I talk about bullying, I don't mean casual teasing or bothering. I am referring to systematic, ongoing actions perpetrated on another person by someone who has authority or power over that person. For example, high status students bullying lower status students, or administrators bullying teachers. There are other instances but I'm limiting my sphere to schools because there is always bullying going on in schools and we often look the other way rather than dealing with it for what it is: someone wielding their power over another person. When we stand by and don't do anything, then we are complicit and guilty as charged. Can you ...