The thing I miss most about the way school was before COVID is the human-ness of it all. Even though I’m pretty introverted, I miss the sounds of voices in the hallways, the smiles and waves and hellos and laughs and handshakes (remember those?). I miss the moments of electricity when you connect a young […]
How to Train Your Will to Want to Teach Again, Despite Everything: Principles and a Practice
You ever get those moments when it’s Summer 2020 and you kind of don’t want to teach anymore? Like you used to love teaching, be all about teaching, but then you experienced four months of turmoil and uncertainty and change and toxicity and pain and inequity and inefficiency and you’re like, “You know, I’m good. […]
How to Build Strong Relationships with Students if You’re Starting the Year Online: Principles and Practices
So you’re starting the school year as a distance educator and you have no idea how to build strong relationships with students you’ve never met in person. Before the hyperventilation kicks in, let’s center on a few grounding principles. Grounding Principle 1: You know things that work for building relationships in normal circumstances. First, you […]
Four Months In: How’s Your Will to Teach? (Plus Writing Intentions for Back to School)
It’s been four months since the first day of school closures in Michigan. Four months: 120 days; a third of a year. If you’re an educator in the United States, you probably find yourself in one of four scenarios right now: Your school or district has announced that you’ll be starting the year remotely. Your […]
A Beautiful, Simple Strategy for Improving Your School Culture
Recently, I wrote about how our inner worlds are customizable and that their makeup depends on the ways we use our time. Sometimes our time gets used in the ways we intend; but often, our time is hijacked by habits or interruptions. These interruptions can be good! But they can also be soul-sucking, especially when […]