I had a great start to my week! I absolutely enjoy my classes, and my new collegaues seem to be adjusting and fitting in well. Here’s how my week went with some key lessons. College in the H.S. (American Lit.) I started the kids with a dozen literary terms. I created a chart with the following columns: literary term, definition, example ...

I received a couple e-mails about how I start my classes each year. Last semester I started with the following activities, which I wrote about in January. It worked like a charm. On the first day we have lots of comings and goings because of schedule changes, so I start with an easy activity and a game. I have the students take the first ten ...

Last night I attended some birthday bashes and, of course when a group of teachers get together, the conversation eventually leads back to teaching. One of the gang asked me why my year has been so successful, so I explained my new philosophy on grading. He then said that’s great, but how do I build [...]

Since my school corrects schedules during the first week of school, it is quite difficult to begin teaching until the second or third day. This means I don't go over the classroom expectations until the third day of class. Last year I decided that the first day would just be a fun day to help me get to know the students. I set a game show in my ...