Roxanna Elden's Blog, page 6
July 11, 2022
The Lesson-Planning Triangle
Here’s something I remember from my first year of teaching: I stayed up very late every night making detailed lesson plans. Maybe too detailed. Definitely too late. Then, one day, I saw one of my more experienced colleagues’ lesson plan. And it looked something like this: Math: Multiplication X’s 4. That was it. That was... Read more »
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July 8, 2022
The Most Underrated Tool for Dealing with New-Teacher Information Overload
As a speaker at new-teacher orientation events, of the first issues I try to address is that new teachers aren’t just on information overload: they’re on super-important information overload. With this in mind, an organizational system I share with incoming teachers or their mentors is a strategy I call “A Big Box.” The supplies necessary... Read more »
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July 7, 2022
As a new teacher, you’re not just on information overload. You’re on SUPER-IMPORTANT INFORMATION overload. Here’s what to do about it.
What’s the difference between information overload and super-important information overload? Glad you asked! The amount of information is the same: somewhere between a-tiny-bit-more-than-you-can-process-right-now and infinity. In the super-important version, however, each piece of new information comes with an urgent warning or moral implication meant to bump it to the front of the priority line. The result... Read more »
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First-Year Teacher FAQ: Can I really not smile until Christmas?
“Don’t smile until Christmas” is a sound bite of wisdom passed down through generations of teachers. It’s not really about smiling. It’s about breaking character and letting your guard down too early. (More detail on this in the See Me After Class chapter called Your Teacher Personality: Faking it. Making it.) Some teachers are strict the... Read more »
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Beginning Teacher FAQ: Should I let students help create classroom rules to show I value their opinions?
New teachers often receive this advice. It looks great on paper, but it’s usually not worth the classroom management risk it creates. Not everyone agrees with me on this. In fact, this advice gets more pushback than any other advice I share in New Teacher Orientation speeches, but here’s why I recommend that new teachers... Read more »
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First-Day-of-Teaching FAQ: Should I let parents come into the room on the first day?
I’ve got two answers to this. One comes from my own experience. The other one comes from realizing that my own experience may not match your experience. From my own experience, the answer is that, unless you teach really young children, you probably don’t want parents walking into your classroom on the first day. This... Read more »
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Rookie Teacher FAQ: Should I try to plan my whole year ahead of time?
Time is scarce during the school year, so you’ll be grateful for any planning you’ve done ahead of time. Planning the entire year in detail, however, is not the best use of your time and probably not even possible. This year will be filled with surprises that could throw off your schedule. Here’s what to... Read more »
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May 16, 2022
Media Training Basics for Educators. (And Why Teaching Does Not Prepare You to Speak to the Media.)
Readers of Adequate Yearly Progress may notice an underlying theme of educators being really, really bad at media communication. In the book there are several situations in which a teacher or principal ends up trying to explain an educator’s point of view on TV and it goes wrong. Sometimes, the teacher is simply shut out... Read more »
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May 13, 2022
Dangerous Minds: The Siren Song of the Student Feedback Survey
I should start by saying I’ve always been a fan of giving an anonymous survey to students at the end of the year. The last chapter of See Me After Class includes a long list of survey questions that teachers may want to ask, and I’ve asked all of them with my own students at... Read more »
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There Are Lots of Ways That Asking Your Students For Feedback Can Go Wrong. Just Saying.
I should start by saying I’ve always been a fan of giving an anonymous survey to students at the end of the year. The last chapter of See Me After Class includes a long list of survey questions that teachers may want to ask, and I’ve asked all of these questions with my own students.... Read more »
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