What is something you wish your administrators knew more about?
Ours is brain science. From motivation to groupthink to circadian rhythms, there’s just so many ways we could make school a little bit better if we fully understood how the brain works.
Girls’ hockey = hockey
Girls’ basketball = basketball
Girls’ soccer = soccer
Girls’ snowboarding = snowboarding
Girls’ diving = diving
Girls’ sports = sports. Period. Girls belong in sports.
(And yes, this includes all our nonbinary and trans kids too.)
Teaching is hard.
I started this account because I knew that science could help. But some days, it just feels like nothing helps.
So today, I’m just going to say, teaching is hard.
Education is political.
Happy Halloween!
May your student be calm, and may your coffee be hot.
Sending a whole lot of love to the teachers, students, and their families in Jamaica right now.
Regulation has to happen before learning can happen.
Science is a working body of knowledge not a set of facts. Science is a way of problem-solving and looking for patterns. Science is the never-ending quest to figure out how the world around us works. Perfect for teaching, if you think about it.
Teaching is hard. Science can help.
School business needs to be handled by the school. Teachers don’t need to be doing basic administrative tasks (like making copies or cutting up handouts) for school-wide things. Use office or support staff do them instead.
Let the teachers use their work time to support teaching and learning.
We can understand why the behavior happens, but that doesn’t mean it should be an excuse.
Excusing bad behavior sends the message that the behavior is tolerated.
We stand with our teachers in Alberta.
Some student behaviors can be corrected privately. However, there are times when a public student behavior needs to be corrected publicly. It isn’t about shaming. It’s about letting everybody know which lines are not to be crossed.
You pitched the tent. This is where we are going to camp.
We stand with our autistic students and colleagues.
“I am different, not less.” -Temple Grandin
Three ingredients of intrinsic motivation: autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
What does this look like for students? What does this look like for teachers?
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Accommodations should be logical and easy for the teacher to meet. If not, we probably don’t have the best system in place to support the student. Either the system needs to change … or the placement.
Overburdening teachers with unrealistic accommodations in the name of inclusion isn’t the way.
This.
Get curious. Teachers, with your students. Admin, with your staff.
September is National Deaf Awareness Month. Want to know how you can best support deaf and hard of hearing students? Check out a few of these easy strategies!
Cell phone bans are gaining nationwide traction. Currently, 31 states and the District of Columbia either have a statewide ban or require schools to have a restrictive cell phone policy. Seven other states have recommended a restrictive policy or offered incentives for district that adopt one.
When we don’t hold kids accountable for bad behavior, we send the message that the bad behavior is acceptable.
Accountability doesn’t have to be a punishment. It can be. But it definitely needs to be a response that has weight and consequence.
Kids deserve to be safe in schools.
In the United States, there are approximately 3.5 million full-time and part-time traditional public school teachers, 251,000 public charter school teachers, and 466,000 private school teachers (numbers from the 2020-2021 school year). That’s a lot of amazing experience and brainpower. Source below.
Tell me you’re a teacher without telling me you are a teacher. #firstweekofschool #iykyk #floorpencils
So the first step to raising helpful kids can be summed up in a single phrase: Let them practice.
- Michaeleen Doucleff, Hunt, Gather, Parent: What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About the Lost Art of Raising Happy, Helpful Little Humans
They are always learning.
We are always teaching.
Time in classrooms > ice breakers
Time in classrooms > guest speakers
Time in classrooms > training on new curriculum
Time in classrooms > turn and talk
Time in classrooms > explaining the new tracking system
Time in classrooms > meetings that should have been an email
If teachers aren’t paid, they shouldn’t be working. That includes replying to emails, doing mandatory trainings, sending out welcome messages, filling out forms, and setting up classrooms.
If the work is worth doing, it should be scheduled and paid for.
Teaching can be hard. Science can help.
