Summer school is meant to help struggling students, not shame them.
Some students benefit from summer school. The extended school year (ESY) gives students an opportunity to expand on what was previously covered in class, especially if they struggled in reading or math. Unfortunately, teachers sometimes convey to students that a failing grade is a crime, and summer school is the jailhouse for students with such grades.
Not only is the use of summer school as a threat demeaning to the student; it defiles the meaning of education over the summer. The damnation of ESY in education needs to stop!
The Use of ESY as a Threat in Schools
The first time I heard about summer school was in fifth…
Please do not post this kind of content on my stories. This kind of stuff is unacceptable. I am a teacher and this reflects on me. Please know that you have been blocked and I have reported you.
I just want my happily ever after.
As adults, we live in a society where we are told to stop believing in fairy tales because they are not real. Your prince is not coming to rescue you from your tower, and you will love many people just to break up with them, and this is an ongoing process for the rest of your life. People think that the solution to this is one-night stands or friends with benefits relationships. Love is hard, yes, but as cliche as it sounds, you just have to keep believing. People like to say that fairy tales aren’t real because of the…
Group work is great, but that doesn’t mean we should forget about students working independently.
Children are social creatures. That is why, before the pandemic, teachers did so much small group work. In fact, research proves that group work is the most effective model in getting students to learn. Vygotsky’s research shows that students learn better from their peers than anyone, even their teachers. I believe this is because their peers can communicate to them using language that makes sense to them.
Another reason teachers like small group instruction is that it is more convenient for them — students are able to help each other with the material. …
It helped me figure out who I am outside of teaching.
Reality can be difficult to live through, especially when you try to live in reality 100% of the time. The problem with reality is that you wait for something amazing to happen, but it never does. You wait to be excited, meet some new friends, even meet that perfect person, and it never happens. You are just left feeling bored or empty inside because of what never happened in the reality you live. After I graduated college, I was so desperate to know what the next chapter of my life would be. Who would I meet? Where would I meet…
If remote learning has exposed anything, it’s that our students are not self-sufficient.
I was having a conversation with the staff at the school where I work, and we were talking about how this pandemic exposed how much independence our students lacked. One of my colleagues said that our students are too dependent on us when it comes to problem-solving academically and developmentally, and the pandemic exposed that. I have mentioned in a previous article that students now have a responsibility to be more self-directed than before because of remote learning. I will link that article below this paragraph. The problem is, some of our students do not know how to be self-directed…
What if I told you this could make students more interested in writing?
We were sitting in morning meeting. We always ask our students how they are doing today and if there is anything they want to share. One of my students shared that he is writing a book. Of course, this makes teachers really excited when their second-grader is practicing writing at home. Writing is a skill that the more you practice, the better you get. As a writer myself, I am fully aware of this fact. The teacher I team-teach with asked what he’s writing his book about, and he said he was writing about Spider Man. She told him that…
Although the classroom feels less intimate, it has given us more revelations about our students.
Is it possible to learn more about our students on while they are at home learning via Zoom or Google Meet? I recently wrote an article about how much less intimate the classroom feels during this pandemic (which I will have linked below this paragraph). While classrooms do not seem intimate as they used to be, that is not to say that virtual learning does not have its benefits. Because of virtual learning, we have gotten to learn more about our students’ everyday lives. One of the projects I decided to pursue during my master’s program in college was to…
All the things that were encouraged by schools that are no longer allowed
On Friday February 12, 2021, schools everywhere had their Valentine’s Day celebration. On a typical Valentine’s Day celebration, children bring Valentines and treats for their classmates. They can also play some games. This was Valentine’s Day before 2020 of course. While we can still play games like Valentine’s Bingo that do not require physical contact, being able to move around the classroom for different activities is no longer allowed. We can pass out Valentines, but they have to be given to the teacher by a certain deadline in a plastic bag. If they miss that deadline, the Valentines cannot be…
We are here to help your child grow, not tell them the right answer.
Dear Parents,
I am your child’s teacher. I want to support your child’s education in the best way I can. I appreciate your support in your child’s education. Believe me, a child can make the most out of his or her education with parental support. However, a child also needs to be challenged to get the most out of his or her education. The problem is, your idea of supporting your child’s education and my idea conflict with each other.
You seem to think that by…
Stephanie Nicole
Elementary school teacher who writes about education, children/young adult media, childhood, and disability. College graduate who rediscovered anime!
