Happy Back-to-School season! One question newer teachers always ask their colleagues is: “What do I do the first week of school?” My answer is always the same: “Routines and procedures sprinkled in with content.” [See a list of popular routines and procedures here.] What I mean by this is as educators we have to prepare…

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:…

Summer is winding down and the upcoming school year is rapidly approaching. Teachers are trying to balance their time between setting up their classroom and attending professional development sessions as well as numerous meetings with school personnel. Most schools host a “Back-to-School” night prior to the first day of school so that parents and students…

It’s quite the oxymoron to ask teachers to vote for the best teacher in the school, one whom they have never seen teach because they are busy teaching themselves. Go figure. I can’t understand how and why this has become a best practice in schools to have teachers vote for who they think deserves the…

Graphics courtesy of Erin Waters Holy Cow! I have been podcasting for two years now- can you believe it? Check out my podcast’s 1st birthday blog post here. Thanks to all of you who have supported the Empowering Educators podcast, subscribing to get weekly episodes right to your devices and leaving thoughtful reviews on iTunes…

 Graphics by KG Fonts The summer is often a season of transition for many educators. Such a transition requires an interview and if one is lucky enough, they are called back to perform a short demonstration lesson (or ‘demo’ for short). This allows the leadership team to see a teacher in action and determine if…

As another school year comes to a close, many administrative teams are making teacher assignment changes. Teachers are receiving the news that they will be moving to a new grade level team for the upcoming school year. Although this announcement can be devastating to some, the timing in hearing the news prior to summer break…

School is almost out for summer. A big concern in schools around the world is that this time off often results in a loss of learning for students. In efforts to ensure students maintain all knowledge gained from the school year, teachers assign academic projects to be completed during their summer break. These projects spiral…

In working with hundreds of new teachers as a mentor and instructional coach, the one topic that comes up every time is communication and collaboration with parents. Funny enough, when talking to my friends and family who are parents, the hot topic of discussion in regards to school and their kids is communication and collaboration with…

As my husband and I were walking the trails of Asheville this weekend for our anniversary, we started to talk about our careers. We discussed how many jobs are harder than perceived and our schools need to do a better job of ensuring students see the value of all sorts of work, not just careers…