Gifted and Talented Youngsters: Enrichment for Future Dreams

Today was a very special day in the life of my little 9 year old Leigha Colby.  She is my middle daughter, sometimes feels left out, yet like all of my children has a special talent or gift.  Where my oldest son Conner is gifted in deep love for others and my oldest daughter Kaylee

Student Writers Living In Poverty

In the many years I have spent in the classroom, I have been through several modes of thought as a teacher and most of these modes were originally brought on by the way I was raised. I grew up in a home with parents who did not graduate from college but who had a high

Get Your Bluff In: 5 Scams Used By High School Students

I would like to begin this post by saying that I am not trying to bash students at all, but expose some of the lies that student tell teachers to either (A) get out of doing work or (B) blame their mistakes on others.  Most of my students are hard working, inquisitive, and caring people

5 Perks of Being a Public School Teacher

I’m sure there are plenty of blogs out there that have many negative things to say about being a public school teacher: from the horrible pay to the mistreatment by legislators out of touch with the classroom to the violence that could be visited upon any school.  I, however, would like to list 5 things

The 90-10 Split

Yesterday I posted a blog post about my thoughts on why I assign homework.  I had some very interesting responses and some of you even suggested some rather rash (and humorous) ways to deal with the problem of students who simply choose not to do homework assignments. Today I thought I would like to offer

Common Core Writing: First Day of School Assignment

Yesterday was the first day of school for our students.  Often it is difficult to have something for students to do right out of the box on the first day, since our syllabi may not have arrived from the copy center, our room may not be 100% ready or we may not have written a