As a young teacher, I would see my students struggle to make any academic achievements and then make excuses for why they didn’t make adequate growth. I liked to blame it on students’ lack of attention and work ethic, student medical diagnoses (504’s and IEPs), family life, stupid school policies, and many other nonsensical reasons. … More Stop Making Excuses!
Reading, language arts, and math are the focus in lower and upper elementary grades. This doesn’t mean history and science are not taught but are not considered core subject matter. State and national assessments focus on the three core subjects. Science starts being assessed in fifth grade and then again every two years. Schools put … More The Key To Academic Success
We tell our students that failure is a step in learning, but how often do we explain to them the value of failure, or more importantly, the importance of making mistakes? We train our students to get problems right, rather than to learn from their mistakes. We give students assignments and mark off what is … More Mistakes Are A Necessity
“There is no easy way. There is only hard work, late nights, early mornings, practice, rehearsal, repetition, study, sweat, blood, toil, frustration, and discipline” (Jocko Willink). In my last post, I stated that very little has changed in the public school system since its establishment 100+ years ago. When it comes to how a classroom … More Let This Be The Foundation
Welcome To The Classroom 