Courses To Careers: Connecting curriculum to the real world
Yesterday I had the opportunity to lead a guidance seminar called Courses To Careers. During their lunch period, students came down to our meeting room to hear about the wide variety of courses offered in the building. Now this is important from a scheduling perspective because students need to know what is available to them […]
Common Core: Making ELA standards accessible
Last week we looked at the shifts CCSS shifts brought to math. This week lets look at the shifts in English Language Arts (ELA). Like with math, it’s easy to gloss over ELA and say, ‘I don’t teach English, this doesn’t apply to me.’ How untrue that thought would be. Built into the ELA standards […]
Common Core: Helping parents visualize math standards
Common Core, two words that are making even experienced teachers shudder. The accountability movement of the 1990s led to an increased focus on testing and standards. As testing became more integrated into our daily lives as educators it became clear that each classroom having their own standards would no longer work. And as such Common […]
Homework: Are your students aware?
As a school counselor, I’m tasked with helping students pass their classes. I also act as an advocate for students when something gets in the way of their educational success. Each week when I review my D/F list, do you know what is the number one thing that contributes to student ineligibility? Homework. Now before […]
Veterans Day: How do schools honor service above self?
Recently at a Model UN competition I overheard two teacher’s discussing Veterans Day. One of the teachers was a veteran, who had earned his college degree and teaching certificate through the benefits of the GI Bill. The two teachers discussed the Veterans Wall currently on display at the host school, and wondered why their buildings […]
Parent Teacher Conferences: Keep the first things first
My assistant principal sent out an email on Tuesday, “Please remember parent teacher conferences are on Thursday and Friday.” As if any teacher could forget conferences were looming on the horizon. Now every school does conferences a little differently but one thing remains consistent, the slowly building anxiety of what to say to that one […]