Category Archives: Education

It’s Not Easy Being a Teacher

This week I started a nine-day job as a high school social studies teacher.  It’s bringing back all the memories of my student-teaching days, like the administrative problems I had. Normally as a substitute, I teach one, maybe two days and leave a report on everything that happened.  Now I have to deal with the

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One Day in Dance Class

Being a substitute teacher has given me the chance to see how others teach.  One of my favorite memories was escorting a special-needs student to his dance class.  He was taking dance as an enrichment and they were working him into one of their routines.  Of course, he really stood out in a room full

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How High School Has Changed

Today I got another reminder of how high school has changed since I was a student. This morning some students came into my classroom selling the school’s news magazine. I had a couple extra dollars, so I bought one. The cover story is “Let’s Talk About Sex.” Other major articles are “Being Gay in High

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What Not To Do With Ice Cream

One benefit of substitute teaching is I can follow students throughout their academic careers.  I saw a young lady with anger-management issues successfully complete high school. Students I first met as fifth graders are now finishing eighth grade.  It’s a very rewarding feeling.  On the other hand… I especially remember one young man I worked

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What Kids Can Teach You

I had a busy day teaching Language Arts yesterday, which triggered my favorite teaching memory. Several years ago, I was helping out in a middle school science class. The students were doing an experiment in teams, writing their findings in notebooks. Toward the end of the period, there was a mad dash to finish and

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