LEANING INTO OUR BEST HABITS
April seems to always hold two things, often in juxtaposition. One moment, a Northerner like me is enjoying the first flowers, only to wake up to them covered in snow. We pull on our warmest sweaters so we can also maybe wear sandals.
We teachers are still in the thick of our content, meetings, planning, and testing; and yet, the number of days left is finally small enough to count. We are athletes, carrying the exhaustion of our efforts, but also twitching our fingers to ramp up adrenaline for the finish, wondering just how much we have left in the tank.
Jocelyn Dunnack
TEST-TAKING COLLABORATION STRATEGY
In 2023, we attended the CPM National Teacher Conference in San Francisco, California. As co-teachers (Amanda is a middle school special education teacher, and Tom is an 8th grade math teacher), we attended a session on co-teaching to learn additional strategies and techniques to bring back to our classroom.
One of the strategies we learned and tried in our classroom was allowing students time on test day to ask each other questions before they begin their test. Students put all their materials, including writing utensils, on the floor.
Amanda Kadulski and Tom Dagit
TEACHERS AND STAYING POWER
Over my 34-year career, with over 20 years dedicated to teaching (following 13 years in industry), I find myself approaching retirement with a deep-seated mission. My goal is to ensure that the students I leave are nurtured by educators who share my passion, possess a work ethic like mine, cherish their students wholeheartedly, and feel respected by their students, school administrators, and the general public.
