Roxanna Elden's Blog, page 7

Rescuing Your Ideas from the Good-Intentions Abyss

Early in my teaching career, a colleague told me about her plan to give every one of her students a personalized card on their birthday. What a wonderful way to show students she cared! I decided that I, too, would be the type of teacher who gave out birthday cards to students. I bought the... Read more »

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Adjusting Your Teaching Dials

Is this the right moment to show compassion by allowing a student to turn in that late assignment? Or would a tough-love approach teach them to be responsible about deadlines? Should you follow that interesting topic that came up organically or stick to your lesson plan? How much of your class time should be devoted... Read more »

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The Personal Lives of Teachers (Or: The Personal Lives? Of Teachers?)

“What’s a personal life?” you just asked, with a knowing, bitter laugh. Welcome. Maybe classroom difficulties are sapping your confidence. Maybe some combination of exhaustion and a never-done to-do list makes you wonder when you’ll have time to meet and date people, or whether your existing relationships and friendships will last, or whether you’ll have... Read more »

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The Personal Lives of Teachers (Or: The Personal Lives? Of Teachers?

“What’s a personal life?” you just asked, with a knowing, bitter laugh. Maybe classroom difficulties are sapping your confidence. Maybe some combination of exhaustion and a never-done to-do list makes you wonder when you’ll have time to meet and date people, or whether your existing relationships and friendships will last, or whether you’ll have time... Read more »

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Managing Your Expectations About Teaching and Yourself as a Teacher

Of course you knew teaching wouldn’t be exactly how it looks in the movies, or perfectly match the scenarios you studied in college. But sometimes? Wow. Just. . . wow. Here’s a somewhat depressing word cloud. It’s from a 12-page set of responses to a survey that used to be part of the New Teacher... Read more »

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Becoming THAT teacher. (Or, At Least Not Becoming THAT teacher.) Managing Your Expectations About Teaching and Yourself as a Teacher

Of course you knew teaching wouldn’t be exactly like the movies or perfectly match your courses in college. But sometimes? Wow. Just. . . wow. The truth is, not every problem teachers face has a solution. Sometimes you just need to talk about a situation in your classroom in order to gain enough critical distance... Read more »

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Managing your Time, Space, Energy, and Non-Teaching Life

One of the most common issues that comes up when I speak to teachers in See Me After Class Office Hours is something I’ve come to think of as “the treadmill problem.” It’s come up so often that I’ve developed a specialized three-session framework to help teachers get this problem under control. The treadmill problem... Read more »

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Managing Your Time, Space, Energy, and Non-Teaching Life

Cut through the sense of overwhelm. Cut through the mental and/or physical classroom clutter. Get grading under control. Narrow your focus to figure out what you need to do next instead of gaping at a towering to-do list that never seems to go down. Figure out how you can take care of your students, but... Read more »

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The Adults Who Affect Your Teaching Job: Colleagues, Administrators, District Evaluators, and Your Students’ Parents

Who knew that so much of your stress as a teacher would come from other grown-ups? But here we are. Every now and then you’ll find that some of the other adults who are woven into your job might actually be making your job harder. Here are the four main kinds of grown-ups you meet... Read more »

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The Other Adults Who Affect Your Teaching Job: Colleagues, Administrators, District Evaluators, and Your Students’ Parents

Who knew that so much of your stress as a teacher would come from other grown-ups? But here we are. Some permutation of administrators/ district evaluators/ students’ parents/ even other teachers is making your job harder. Let’s see what we can do about this.

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