Spring is upon us, and teachers everywhere lament how difficult it is to keep students engaged as they are getting ready for state assessments and AP exams. It is also difficult for us teachers to stay engaged with new lessons and innovative ways to keep students engaged because we have been burning the candle at both …
Category Archives: Professionalism
Just Follow Your Own Advice
Recently, I had coffee with a colleague from another elementary school to talk shop. She’s pretty new to the school where she’s the only Spanish teacher, teaches preschool through 8th grade, and is being asked to create a curriculum. To say that she is concerned and feeling a high level of stress, is an obvious …
On their own path (02/11/2017)
Here are some of the blog posts that I “loved” this week. A year of Growth This practical post by Spanish elementary school teacher, Jennifer Kennedy, may be one of my favorites of the new year so far. Reflecting on her own growth as a teacher, Jennifer gives three recommendations that any teacher can follow …
On their own path (02/04/2017)
What a busy week in the blogging world. There were so many great posts from educators that it made it really tough to pick the ones that really made me think, smile, or wonder. Hope you’ll find them helpful in your own journey. Using Proficiency Levels With Students? I NOW Get Why! (Or “You Don’t …
On their own path (01/28/2017)
After spending a wonderful weekend at TELL Collab Seattle last week (thanks to Japanese teacher, Colleen Lee-Hayes for her reflections of the learning on day 1 and day 2 last), I’m back to reviewing some of the posts that caught my attention over the last two weeks. And with just about everyone back to school, so …
On their own path (01/14/2017)
We are all so busy and it’s hard to keep up with blogs, social media. Many of you told me that you liked the weekly blog summaries I started last year and you missed reading them. It’s a new year and a new attempt at keeping up, even though I’m not making it my goal for …
Joining Forces
As a father of young kids, I’ve talked with other dads about when to share one of the most sacred of topics with my kids: Star Wars. We’ve gone ’round and ’round with what age, what order, and whether or not to start at Episode 1 or Episode 4, but the thing that remained clear was …
Forget about your goals this year!
“Should old acquaintances be forgotten, And never brought to mind?” … it only takes this song and a couple of hours of reflection on the just-completed calendar year and our list of resolutions or goals for the new year is longer than the grocery list for Christmas dinner. Of course, it’s easy to set goals and …
What you missed on the path in 2016
As the calendar turns to a new year, we are of course looking back at 2016 and looking forward to 2017. We added several new authors this year and more are coming on board next year. Since it’s an unspoken rule to share your top posts of the year, we thought we do the same …
An ImpACTFL Reunion
I was so glad I was able to attend ACTFL this year in Boston! Though it was my first time attending an ACTFL convention, it really felt like a class reunion more than attending a convention because there were so many friends and colleagues I got to catch up with that I had seen at …