Over the years, I’ve developed the following steps to help myself remember the names of my students. These tips can be used by any type of teacher at any grade level.

When I told my fifth-grade class that they were old enough to take charge of their own learning, something unexpected happened.

After my first week of being in a long-term occasional role, it became very clear to me that learning about being in the classroom is not the same as actually being in the classroom.

Students want to read stories that matter to them and, most of all, they want to see themselves reflected within the pages of their beloved comics.

Starting to feel slightly worn out in my current role, I wanted to avoid burning out altogether, so decided that it was time for a change.

The topic of awe couldn’t be more timely. I’ve never seen such an urgent need to address social-emotional issues in and out of the classroom as I do now.

After 25 years in special education classrooms, I’ve learned something our current education system doesn’t always want to admit: the most important work students do each day often goes unseen.

Throughout the decade I have spent working in education, I’ve seen the most positive impact when I’ve incorporated hope-based strategies into my teaching.

Teaching is a great responsibility. I teach English and believe that the ability to communicate, at a personal and societal level, is what builds strong communities and ensures ownership over one’s future. Thus, it’s important that we teachers spend a lot of time on our craft—deliberating the best ways to teach and make lessons fun, interactive, and relatable to students. Professional development thrives on discipline pedagogy and school departments meet to align goals and assignments and to discuss data assessment.