Teachers Make the Worst Students!

Teachers say it themselves all the time: Teachers can make the worst students. While we know there are no bad students, we do agree that professional development needs to be truly excellent to make an impact. From the thousands of PD sessions we have delivered, we’ve learned there are five key insights that may help you develop and deliver more effective PD—especially when technology is part of the mix.

Often—maybe too often—in schools, we carve up the day into finite sections of learning. An hour for reading, and hour for math, maybe 25 minutes for science. We know on some level that learning really doesn’t work this way, but it is the best way we have to make sure content is covered and not skipped.

‘Tis the season to be jolly, but it’s also a great time to engage your students with fun lessons. Here is our collection of themed content to help you keep students engaged all month long:

December Calendar and Morning Meeting: This themed lesson pack will take you and your students through the month of December with calendars, morning meeting activities, an attendance chart, graphing and math activities, and more. 

Holiday Gallery Pack: This fun themed pack contains a variety of images, lessons, and activities to get you in the spirit this holiday season! Use the templates and clipart to create your own lessons, or use our pre-made lessons and activities located in the Lessons tab.

Holiday Hangman: Join us for a bit of fun with Holiday Hangman—it's a great way to practice spelling words or introduce and practice lesson vocabulary! 

Build a Santa: This fun holiday-themed activity is a great way to practice addition and multiplication math facts. 

This concept may be a hard one for a lot of us to wrap our heads around, but there is a good chance that whatever your first job was will not be the first job of your students. This may sound pretty straightforward, but I think the idea is somewhat profound. When we stop to think about it, the entry-level positions of yesterday probably won't exist in the future. Whether these jobs come from the service sector, food service, or manual labor, there is a good chance that our students will not have access to the same positions that we did—and if they do, probably not on the same scale.

When we incorporated 1:1 devices in our school, there was one issue that came up quickly that I wasn’t expecting: students using their device as an MP3 player. For those youngsters who don’t know what that is, it’s an old-fashioned music playing device—much like the CD players, tape decks, and 8-track players from yesteryear.

I guess I didn’t see a Chromebook as being the same as the types of devices students typically use to listen to music. I’m not sure why I had this blind spot, but I quickly realized that students would read books, work on math problems, and even talk to friends with their ear buds in. Why does it matter? There are a few reasons to me why this was both potentially positive and negative.

Thanksgiving time is here, and I’m ready to dive into my favorite foods and desserts. As far as I’m concerned, the holiday isn’t complete without green bean casserole and a dark chocolate pecan pie!

While I’m always thankful for delicious meals at this time of year, I am even more thankful for friends and family. For me and for many others involved in education and teaching, family includes the students and parents that make up such a large part of our lives. In the spirit of the upcoming holiday, here is a list of things to be thankful for when it comes to teaching and guiding students, which we have collected from educators and administrators.

This week, we will be featuring posts that center around teaching and thankfulness. Some posts are funny, some are touching, and all are inspiring. Boxlight is thankful for all the educators who work hard every day to educate and inspire their students. Happy Thanksgiving! 

In this month of thankfulness, my mind turns toward the classroom. Between my husband’s military career and a new baby, I had to step away from the classroom these past two school years. While I feel extremely fortunate to have had this time with my youngest and three other children, I find myself beginning to yearn for the classroom. I walk into my second grader’s school and take a deep breath, reveling in the smell of cleanser, school lunches, and warm copies. Distance, time, and reflection have added a deeper level to my thankful attitude this year, and I have found myself counting my previously underappreciated blessings.

The Every Student Succeed Act (ESSA) is recent federal legislation passed to serve as a support and guide for public schools across our country. The law is comprehensive and influential in a variety of aspects concerning early childhood, K-12, and higher education. Everything from special education and Title 1 services to English language learners and professional development is included in the scope of the law. In particular, the ESSA law has created increased flexibility to states, and therefore schools—but with this flexibility also comes challenges and considerations for all districts involved.

Co-teaching can be a very effective way to teach students. This concept can be defined as two teachers collaborating to design, implement, and assess instruction. There are various ways to co-teach: one teaches while one observes; one teaches while one assists; parallel teaching, where the class is split into two groups and presented the same information; station teaching, where two teachers are at different stations and students move to each station for instruction; alternative teaching, where one teacher pulls a small group of students for intense instruction while the other teaches the whole group; and team teaching, where two teachers teach the same content at the same time.