Every teacher wants to have a 21st Century, tech friendly classroom. And what could be more tech friendly and 21st century than inviting Alexa into your classroom? That’s the epitome of techie-ness, right? Imagine asking a question and a disembodied voice automatically answering you. Cool (and slightly disconcerting).
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Censoring Our Thoughts: Banned Books
Make no mistake about it – we are at war. Only these battles are taking place in classrooms, school board meetings, libraries, and educational institutions around the world. This war will determine whether we have the right to decide what we are allowed to read, what we are allowed to think, and what knowledge we […]
Teachers’ Pet Peeves
The older I get, the more it seems as if the little sayings and phrases I heard growing up are falling by the wayside. Every so often my students remind me of this in a truly spectacular way. A perfect example occurred when I introduced an expository essay topic that was going to be the […]
Cheating: The Academic Epidemic
Benjamin Franklin once famously stated, “Honesty is the best policy.” Yet it seems as though people seem to drift further and further away from this belief and nowhere is this more evident than in the classroom. Cheating in school has been happening as long as there has been school. The difference is that now it […]
Your Opinion Doesn’t Matter
As teachers, we walk a thin line every day. How do we conduct class and present lessons without allowing our personal beliefs to subtly creep in? When you add in the fact that the very nature of Argumentative Writing lends itself to sharing our opinions about the topics being discussed, the issue becomes even more […]
The Devil’s in the Testing Details
“Standardized testing” are two words that cause extreme visceral reactions in teachers. Why? It’s just a test. Right? Wrong! For many teachers, standardized tests are the reason they are leaving the classroom. I’m not talking about beginning teachers, no, I am talking about seasoned veterans with advanced degrees and years of teaching experience. The teachers […]