Because of the excessively violent situations that have occurred in schools over the past 20 years, school safety has been a hot-button issue. Many schools have moved to create a more secure environment by controlling access, locking doors, and conducting drills so that students and staff are prepared if something happens. And while all of this is good and necessary to some degree, I believe we must keep the bigger picture in mind as educators

Unfortunately, the concept of being safe must include a discussion of risk. When lawmakers make decisions about things like stoplights, speed limits, and other traffic laws, they consider the possible danger and how that weighs against normal operations on a roadway. For example, we could put a stop sign at every intersection in the country, which would create safe roads, but it would also hinder commerce, travel, and many other endeavors. There must be a balance between safe roads and the purpose of the roads in the first place.

Unfortunately, I have seen a number of teachers come and go throughout my 20 years in education. And for every teacher who leaves my school, there's a different reason for why they left. However, I would say that I've seen some patterns in the departures of teachers in terms of both why they left and in the manner in which they departed the school. 

And reflecting on this—all of which is based on my observation, not on any research—I believe it might be helpful for school leaders and for the teachers who remain to process the departure of their colleagues. Maybe some of these ideas can help the “professional breakup” to go more smoothly than it sometimes does.

With the holidays upon us, now is a very busy time of the year. It’s also notoriously a time when keeping students on task can be a bit more challenging. Luckily, we’ve got you covered with fun themed content and helpful teaching tips to keep you going right up until the holiday break! 

Here is our collection of engaging content to help you keep your students’ attention all month long:

As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving this week, it’s a great time to reflect on all of the aspects of the education profession that teachers are thankful for. We took a look back at some of our past blogs and posts from educators to compile this list of what makes teachers feel thankful. 

Here are our top 20 reasons why teachers are thankful for teaching:

Many people think that teaching is an easy job, but if you’re a teacher, you know this isn’t the case. In fact, a 2018 Gallup poll showed that 46% of teachers said they experience a high level of daily stress. With so many things to do to ensure the school day runs smoothly—from grading papers to preparing lessons and finding engaging content—it can be hard to keep up with all of the other important aspects of your life.

That’s why we’ve compiled this list of seven apps and services to help simplify your life as you work around all of the other important things you have to do as a teacher:

Hopefully you’ve had a great start to the year—can you believe we’re already heading into the holidays?! Now that you are well into a groove, it’s a great time to discover instructional methods that may be more interactive so your students continue to be engaged at this time of the year.

As I discussed in the first part of this series, there are many great reasons to get started with virtual reality in your classroom. The immersive experience is like nothing else—to me, it really feels like futuristic technology in our students' hands. Engagement skyrockets when we have the VR goggles out. 

There are numerous teaching tools and instructional strategies to go along with this experience that are easy for teachers to access. While on a VR tour, teachers can prompt students to look at different landmarks or details of the environment. There are both self-guided student experiences as well as others that the teacher leads the students through, depending on the objectives of the lesson.