Is it possible to create a culture of failure? My school is currently being asked to discover why the Freshman failure rate is so high. 1/3 of the Freshmen failed a class during their first semester in high school, and statistically speaking 30% of Freshmen who fail a course in their first high school year do [...]

I decided to clean off the shelves in my room of older material, and I realized just how many conferences, trainings, and other professional development sessions I’ve attended. I must have put 20-25 thick binders into boxes and over 150 files into those boxes as well. My second epiphany was that most of the trainings were [...]

In my high school the kids have a term called ''mad dogging.'' This is when someone stares across at another student with the intent to harass or bully, which often leads to a shouting match, bad blood, or even a fight. I got mad dogged in a more figurative sense by an administrator (I will call this person Mad Dog). At a staff meeting we were ...

I went to the high school state football championships this last weekend and watched a coach lose the title game for his team. His inability to adapt and poor play calling at critical moments (really, it was greed leading to opponent points) took the victory from the kids; the leader decided the outcome rather than allowing the kids the ...

One pet peeve I have is honesty. Another is being pulled out of my classes for trainings. This week I have to leave my classroom to participate in a training. I don't mind trainings, but I abhor missing classes for it because it's twice as much work for me. Last June my department was told we had to attend an assessment training, but it would ...