Just a quick note that I’ve passed the PPR exam earning a 280 out of 300 (240 was the passing score). That completes my two content exams; the previous one I also earned a 280 out of 300. Now I just have a few administrative tasks to complete before I get my full certification. It’s [...]
Just a quick note that I’ve recently been using the book Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML and my oh my do I love it. It’s like it’s been written by a teacher, the way they provide graphic organizers and ask critical thinking questions. It matches perfectly with what I’m being taught in my [...]
Several times a week I’ll find an interesting article or resource that I’d love to share with my Web Mastering kids but can’t find a good time to add it into the class. Most of the time the article deals with ideas a little too advanced for most of my students.
With that in mind, I’ve [...]
There’s been a lot of talk in my life recently about using games to teach the future of our world. Hearing the story I just linked to on NPR is one. Having my students tell me song and dance wasn’t good enough, I need to make it a game, is another. And listening to a [...]
I love music. My tastes vary from Rock to Country to Bluegrass to Rock in Bluegrass form. During my long commute I have plenty of time to listen to some great music, which is nice because it calms me down after stressful days. As I listen to my two hours of music everyday, I hear [...]
Despite teaching year long classes, the new semester brings with it a new beginning. A blank grade book, a new calendar year and a fresh outlook on teaching. Right now is a great time to make adjustments and try out ideas conceived during the fall semester. I’ve come up with a list of items I’d [...]
I learned a valuable lesson the other day. One of my students completely shut down. The student was managing along, but all of the sudden the motivation disappeared and behavior problems started to rise. After a few classes of this I finally got in touch with someone who knew the child. Turns out the kid [...]
It’s been two months since I’ve started teaching. I can’t believe I’ve been a High School teacher for two months.
I also can’t believe I’ve survived these past two months. This has got to be one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. The lesson plans, the long drives, learning all the new rules, not to [...]
There were several difficulties I expected as a new teacher. A smaller paycheck, less time all together and a more demanding job. But here are the things I didn’t expect:
The sheer amount of curriculum planning needed. I’m teaching three different subjects and planning an hour and a half lesson every other day is really wearing [...]