Sunday, August 26, 2012

Making Life Easier for You and Your Sub Part 1: The Sub Binder


Can someone please tell me what a Blimpie is and where I can find one? This looks yummy!

Substitute teachers either have the worst job in the world or the best. I've done my share of subbing and, from my personal experience, how the sub job goes really depends on the teacher for whom you are covering. It seems that the better prepared the teacher is for the absence, the better off the substitute will be. It's a rough day when you walk through the door and there are no seating charts, no rosters, no plans, and no pencils within sight. Now, please keep in mind that my subbing experiences were only in high school settings so I really have no idea what an elementary sub must go through. I imagine it's awful, but that's only because the thought of spending a day in an elementary school classroom makes me feel like this bear:

"Oh, God, help me!"
Source

Monday, August 6, 2012

Back to School for the High School Teacher Part 3: The Well-Oiled Classroom Machine

*UPDATE (08-06-12) - The Back to School series consists of the following posts:
Part 1: The Sanity Saver
Part 2: The Classroom Website For the Super Busy Teacher
Part 3: The Well-Oiled Classroom Machine (you are here)
Special: The Student Edition

It's one thing for a teacher to be super organized (Part 1: The Sanity Saver). It's really great to make your classroom resources available 24/7 (Part 2: A Classroom Website for the Super Busy Teacher). But where does the majority of the learning take place? The classroom! No matter how perfectly you have organized your gradebook or how readily available homework assignments are, the majority of daily learning takes place in a classroom and you have to have a classroom that is interesting, organized, fun, and easily utilized. The classroom really is like a machine, or at least part of the big machine. If something doesn't work for you, it's going to slow down your productivity or even cause it to come to a grinding halt! Sometimes, mid-year, part of the machine quits working for you and you have to fix it. For the machine to work at peak performance, it needs to be properly constructed and well-maintained. Such is the classroom.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Back to School: The High School Student Edition (from a teacher's perspective)

*UPDATE (08-06-12) - The Back to School series consists of the following posts:
Part 1: The Sanity Saver
Part 2: The Classroom Website For the Super Busy Teacher
Part 3: The Well-Oiled Classroom Machine
Special: The Student Edition (you are here)


Actual Title: How to Make Your Year Suck Less

Hey, visiting high school student readers. Welcome to my blog. You will likely not give a crap about the majority of my blog posts since they are mostly really nerdy posts about cool things teachers like, but this... this is a wealth of information about making your year in high school suck less. This should particularly hit home for the freshmen.