Dear New Teachers

It gets better. Really, it sucks now, but you’ll have more and more great days and less and less days that you wanna quit and move in with your parents. Working with new teachers in my role as a coach, I ask the question: “Why are you a teacher?”...

The Givachit Scale

Yesterday, John Stevens and I have a workshop for the lovely math teachers of Madera County. It was fantastic. The drive up and down gave us plenty of time in the car to listen to Jimmy Fallon skits and female-fronted rock bands, but also time to discuss our new roles...

What’s Missing?

This tweet caught my eye last week. @mr_stadel @robertkaplinsky @Jstevens009 @MrVaudrey do you guys think you would be more effective coaches if you taught one period a day? — Tim McCaffrey (@timsmccaffrey) November 14, 2014 Three things on that. 1.) I’d be a...

Good Ideas

Here’s what’s happening. Music Cues A teacher, previously averse to new tech tools, installed iTunes and added my collection of Music Cues to it. She’s planning on using a few to start up, then adding more as she gets more comfortable. That exact...

A Week in the Life

School started Monday. For the first time in nigh a decade, I didn’t welcome students into Mr. Vaudrey’s class with a handshake and a smile. I didn’t take roll and ask each student how to pronounce their name and “Do you prefer Bernardino or...