I have been moving towards educational leadership in my career.  Right now I consider myself a 'teacher leader,' and I am applying to administration jobs.   In this journey, I have realized that a lot of our work as leaders in buildings stems from us leading by example.  I care deeply about students, and I had a situation last week that I learned from, so I want to share it with you.   I teach mostly 8th grade classes.  I have a student who is perpetually tardy for my class period two.  I have worked with him one-on-one to help him prioritize getti ..read more

Distance Learning has been underway for a couple of weeks.  I have seen each of my classes twice on Google Meet.  Here are my thoughts. 1.  The students still crave being with their friends.  They are eager to have side chats and bring back a sense of normalcy in any way they can.  This mimics hallway and lunch room conversation.  Our school is going to plan lunch bunches to create space for students to have regular social interactions with their peers. 2. The students generally are not interested in showing their faces or letting us hear their voices.  Abo ..read more

Our eighth-graders are about to begin the Love and Friendship unit, but they will do it at home. This unit is anchored around Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. A classic text that is also in the public domain...this is a no-brainer, right? Wrong. This would have been my first time teaching Romeo and Juliet, and I was looking forward to it when it was going to be taught in a classroom with my students. Now that we are learning virtually, it feels very different. It feels overwhelming (sensing a theme in my recent posts?). It feels like I won't do the text justice (because there is no way I could ..read more

Today we started virtual learning with our students.  We posted assignments; they went onto Canvas and completed assignments.  Our model has students receiving assignments at the beginning of the week and submitting them by 10 a.m. on Fridays.  Today, within 12 hours, there were over sixty posts on multiple discussion boards.  Next week is when we start Google Meet sessions.  I will meet with each of my classes one time per week.  I can't wait to see their faces, but for now, this will have to suffice.  Our county decided to put a hold on grading for the mom ..read more

I read an interesting article by Anne Bromley (UVA) back on March 20th about writing things down.  In this weird world...during this pandemic...write down your thoughts, feelings, joys, and troubles.  It struck me as such an important idea and one that I have only halfheartedly followed.   So today I tried something, and I wanted to share it with all of you.  I wrote a letter to my future self!  I actually did this earlier this year as part of a leadership professional development.  We wrote letters to ourselves in September and then read them and refl ..read more

We are living in a weird world right now.  It is a world characterized by staying home and covering our faces when we have to go out for essential purposes.  It is also a world that is transitioning to online learning experiences.  My county is calling it the Continuity of Learning model.  We are utilizing Google Meet in order to connect with our students.  We are posting modules containing assignments and discussions on Canvas.  There is so much that I don't understand about this world. So what am I doing with all of that? I am supporting my teachers and loving on my students.   I have bee ..read more