Creative English Teacher — Encouragement

Finishing Strong

April 15, 2019 • Encouragement

At this time of the school year it seems like everything is on a downhill slide and only building momentum. How can you find the energy and drive to keep teaching?

Defeating the Doldrums

January 22, 2019 • Encouragement • Teaching Ideas

The doldrums are a region of the sea where the prevailing winds become erratic or fade away completely. Since January is sometimes seen as the doldrums of the school year, here is some encouragement to get us through!

Script-Stories: Making Reading an Experience Instead of a Struggle

November 10, 2018 • Encouragement • Readers Theater Script-Stories • Teaching Ideas

Just because in a traditional classroom students may be able to find the answers to multiple-choice questions by picking through a “reading” passage—ironically, without actually reading it—is this really what reading is all about? It may be a good test-taking skill, and it will hit the standards that we are supposed to cover. But what about those deeper, personal “standards” that we have secretly inside us? What about those of us who want our students to love literature?

Creative Innovator Profile: Mr. (Fred) Rogers

November 04, 2018 • Creativity • Encouragement • Innovators

Mr. Rogers’s creative idea was that television, which he personally did not enjoy, could be a tool for good. He wanted to educate, reassure, and heal the children of the world.

Mr. Zorn: A Tribute

October 01, 2018 • Creativity • Encouragement

The world is a little less today: Zorn has passed on from it. To the uninitiated, Zorn might seem like a sound effect from an old Batman fight scene, but it is a man’s name. Why should you know that name? Because Dan Zorn was the best teacher ever. No, he was never honored on national television. He never met Oprah. He never even won any local teaching awards that I’m aware of. Yet to me he will always be the greatest teacher ever. Mr. Zorn was a survivor of the Vietnam War. He came back with a few grisly...