Teaching is an evolving profession where educators are expected to keep current on best practices while honing their own craft. Although districts require formal professional development hours to help teachers sharpen skillsets, nothing compares to the honest learning experience that occurs among colleagues watching each other in action. Inevitably, there is someone in your building…

Perfecting one’s craft is the key to having a successful career in any field. Improvement doesn’t come fast or easy though. In fact, it can be quite tricky to gain knowledge and expertise without the help of someone more knowledgeable to teach you the ropes. That’s why having a more experienced mentor in the same…

As a converted southerner (out of 8 states I have lived in, 3 have been in the south), I have a tremendous love for the delicious and highly addictive food chain, Chick-Fil-A [CFA]. If you have never heard about this company before, let me give you a quick run-down. Chick-Fil-A: The Company CFA is a…

Hot Tip Tuesday Each week I bring to you helpful tips to become a more effective educator on the Always A Lesson fan page on Facebook. (Give it a quick like by clicking here!) I decided to start grouping my social media posts into a blog post in case you didn’t catch it in your feed. (Want…

It is no surprise that teaching out of a textbook can become dull and boring day after day. Many teachers want to spruce up their Literacy block in efforts to motivate any reluctant readers. (Need help structuring your Literacy block? Read my blog post here.) Two popular trends teachers are talking about to do just…

One of the major to-do list items for teachers upon returning to school in the Fall is classroom set-up. A large chunk of that responsibility is to establish an area of the classroom for a library, only then to have the added pressure to fill it up with great literature for students. Some schools are…

Thrifty Thursday Each week I bring to you helpful tips to become a more effective educator on the Always A Lesson fan page on Facebook. (Give it a quick like by clicking here!) I decided to start grouping my social media posts into a blog post incase you might have missed anything. Time to get caught up:…

Classroom management is a fundamental characteristic of a well-run classroom because of its ability to exponentially make room for learning. It creates structure based on efficient, respectful systems and procedures that cut down on ‘time suckers’ like misbehaviors, misunderstandings and overall distractions. To successfully manage a classroom of students requires two essential teacher behaviors: 1)…

Many new teachers are entering the educational profession this year and it is such an exciting time for these folks. They most likely have dreamed of their future classroom and teacher persona for quite some time, but now it becomes a reality. Recently, a new teacher had a  question  about “Must Have” classroom supplies that…

Administrators are always trying to find innovative ways to increase teacher efficacy and student achievement in the classroom [see my last post on the departmentalizing model of instruction.] Looping tends to be another popular strategy to also address those two important levers. What is ‘Looping?’ There comes a time in a teacher’s career where they…