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Learning stations have become a ritual in my classroom. If you are unfamiliar with what they are, check out this article,  learning stations . This instructional design allows for more student collaboration and autonomy at the same time. Students can work together to discover their own individual strengths and deficits. Intentional grouping of students is one key component to the success of your learning stations.Create groups of varied student abilities and individual learning styles. Completely by accident, I discovered the importance of allowing students to choose a station EdCamp style. During one of my normal learning station days, I allowed students to choose a station based upon where they felt that they needed additional help. I chose a student leader to facilitate the group and remediate or reteach key concepts--and voila...students loved the small group instruction and were engaged in the learning! The feedback was incredible; student leaders loved coaching their peers --...

Bogged down with being great! That truly is a problem for many schools and educators across the nation today. The education revolution has required school administrators and staff to reach for the stars and change how we deliver instruction and encourage learning. Many schools have gladly accepted the challenge --and become really terrific, innovative and progressive schools. Students are solving 21st century real-world problems utilizing technology in collaborative ways. With all of these successes, there is much to celebrate! But... just maybe we are being bogged down with success! Maybe, we are managing all of the tasks associated with being great that we are becoming complacent. For sure, it is not intentional; it happens very subtly. Little by little, our genius time has been swallowed up by "things to do", mandates, commitments and obligations. No longer is there the time to imagine, dream, question and try new things--so, we become complacent with just being good enoug...

I am confident!  In my last post, I described how deflated, over-burdened and dispirited educators currently are, and sadly, it is true for far too many. But... I am an optimist who firmly believes that life is a series of seasons that brings change.  In the past decade, we have lived through a brutal time as educators, but I see signs of green emerging; a rebirth is happening! People are starting to tire of the negative public rhetoric that blames public schools and teachers for all of the inadequacies of students. Just this past week, The New Yorker featured an article entitled  Stop Humiliating Teachers  that makes the argument that student failures cannot possibly be entirely attributed to poor quality teacher and schools.  Matthew Lynch confirms the notion that teachers cannot be held completely accountable for student performance in his article  5 Reasons Why teachers Can't Do It All . There are many variables that affect student performance, and scho...

I am an impassioned educator that has watched my profession be debased for the past decade. Politicians and big business have vilified and disparaged public school teachers, along with all of the facets of a public school, under the guise of the desire to improve the present failing education system.  To demonstrate that there are earnest attempts at reforming public education, new laws, new requirements, new initiatives, new programs and increased testing have been mandated Teachers are drowning!  We are jumping through hoops, checking boxes, filling out forms and fattening file folders, all in an effort to satisfy the requirements mandated for a reformed public education system that promises to be better. That is a haughty claim that only time will tell if it comes to fruition. More time is spent documenting how we are doing our job, instead of allowing us to  do  our job. Time is a premium; so much to do, so little time! We now spend every unencumbered  secon...

Never has there been a time that there are so many ways to be connected, but yet, we are so disconnected. Certainly, we e-mail, text, and interact through social media, but is it authentic communication? We are missing out on meaningful  personal relationships! So many teachers, and I would argue anyone in education, are closing their doors whenever possible in an effort to "get things done". They hurry through conversations, meetings and events to move on to the next obligatory task. Many staff members work through their lunches and prep time, rarely leaving their classrooms--suffering in isolation. They meet the demands of their job, but there is little time to get to know one another, celebrate their successes and laugh together. We are connected, but yet so isolated! In accordance to  Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs , a sense of belonging can help us to achieve self-actualization and experience success.  Going it alone can cause teachers to become stagnant and lose their ...