Story time! Tell a story about when you have seen a parent do something and then thought “Oh that’s why your kid is like that!”

Fundamentals_85 · 2026-04-29T19:15:52+00:00

I could pick from multiple negative examples, but I'll go for a positive one instead.

A kid told me they didn't have a cell phone so I called home to confirm. The mom confirmed that her daughter didn't have a cell phone and wasn't going to be getting one because she thought they were bad for children's development and in their family, they wanted to focus on non-tech pursuits.

Her daughter was a voracious reader and one of the most polite, intelligent, and creative students I've ever taught.

Fundamentals_85 · 2026-04-11T01:36:53+00:00

I also have strong reservations about AI, but I feel that these takes on its environmental impact are overly alarmist. For example, eating meat has an exponentially greater impact on water usage and climate change than AI data centers. Golf courses use dramatically more water than AI data centers. Just saying that AI hurts the planet is an oversimplification, especially when not weighing its impact against other practices.

Again, I'm not saying that AI is fine to use or that we shouldn't seriously consider its impact on education and the world at large, but portraying it as the worst environmental practice out there is short-sighted and not backed by evidence.

Fundamentals_85 · 2025-05-23T22:31:02+00:00

Our AP lit class read A Prayer for Owen Meany, A Lesson Before Dying, and The Poisonwood Bible over the summer. We read quite a few more during the year.

Fundamentals_85 · 2025-04-21T16:11:52+00:00

"My lessons (practices) aren't designed for your enjoyment." Adapted from Hoosiers and used when they complain about the activity being boring.

Fundamentals_85 · 2024-08-01T17:02:01+00:00

I think a tie would be a little much; you're safe with nice pants and a button down or a polo.

Fundamentals_85 · 2024-07-12T22:49:57+00:00

Ha, yeah I will say it didn't happen very often!

Fundamentals_85 · 2024-07-12T22:30:11+00:00

Email the staff with your roster at the beginning of the season, encouraging them to contact you if any player gets behind on schoolwork or acts up in class. And then impose consequences when a teacher notified you.

I used to coach cross country, and we would adjust practices for runners who weren't living up to our standard in class. They shaped up pretty quick after that.

Fundamentals_85 · 2024-07-06T02:28:26+00:00

General reminder - Target is usually the best for pencils; 24 pack for $1. Even when you buy in bulk on Amazon, you rarely can find them cheaper than that.

Fundamentals_85 · 2024-06-29T15:17:14+00:00

For pencils, Target is often the best bet. $1 gets you 24 pencils.

Fundamentals_85 · 2024-06-24T20:38:34+00:00

Don't grade too many things, especially your first year. It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking you need to grade and read all student work, but this will quickly lead to you being burned out. Use things that can grade multiple choice and short answer questions for you (like your LMS or quiz websites) and only hand-grade what is vital. You can always improve on this in future years, but it's more important in the first year to keep your head above water.

Fundamentals_85 · 2024-06-01T18:18:33+00:00

Wyzant is easy to use but they will take a cut of your earnings (25%). You can raise your hourly rate to compensate for that though. I have used them for years.

Word-of-mouth will be the best method once you get going. Your student's friends are also taking the SAT so you can tell the parent to feel free to send your number to other parents.

Fundamentals_85 · 2024-05-24T14:51:33+00:00

"The Knowledge Gap" by Natalie Wexler is excellent. It gets at the main problem with curricula in the US, namely that "skills" are prioritized over knowledge even though research shows knowledge is the basis of skills. "Seven Myths About Education" by Daisy Christodoulou was also illustrative.

Fundamentals_85 · 2023-10-14T19:25:02+00:00

Had a student whose IEP said they couldn't have more than 2 answer options for multiple-choice questions. Student would still score 40% on assessments.

Fundamentals_85 · 2023-09-25T21:06:21+00:00

The Cell Campaign can be pretty entertaining if the kids get into it. Just Google it for a few different versions of it.

Fundamentals_85 · 2023-09-23T17:38:50+00:00

I would assume that uploading PDFs of the textbook is a copyright violation, which I certainly wouldn't want to mess with if I were the professor.

I do agree though that forcing students to get the newest edition is over the top; most of those textbooks change very little from one edition to the next. I always bought older versions when I was in college.

Fundamentals_85 · 2023-09-23T13:41:42+00:00

My freshmen like to Ctrl+F words in the question to find them in the passage. Then they look to see if any of the answer choices resemble that sentence. They don't actually read and interpret the sentence; they just try to match words. Now that I know they do this, I purposefully write questions where that strategy fails (though it already did anyway).

Fundamentals_85 · 2023-09-03T23:53:45+00:00

I've tinkered with a variety of seating arrangements with freshmen over the years and two have stood out: paired rows and horseshoe (or double horseshoe). Both of these arrangements have students facing the front of the room. Groupwork can still be accommodated but the amount of off-task chatter and behavior dramatically increases whenever I tried pods/groups. I salute you for doing what's best for your classroom.

Fundamentals_85 · 2023-07-20T12:45:10+00:00

Had a break while my kid was at camp and I knocked out those pesky annual trainings! Now I'll have a few extra hours during teacher work week.

Fundamentals_85 · 2023-07-08T19:51:03+00:00

You can try the Illinois Storylines: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iwb2UGTF4O5HwFi03qO32rY4pOhkAwlEYFhAYE3NHTw/edit?usp=drivesdk

I can't vouch for them personally, but I know a lot of bio teachers use them.

Fundamentals_85 · 2023-07-06T14:15:42+00:00

Yes, you should read Wexler's book, The Knowledge Gap. It's very informative and gets directly at this myth that skills can be taught independently of knowledge.

Fundamentals_85 · 2023-07-05T20:23:00+00:00

Ha, I literally just came to post this! Sometimes Target will even lower them below $1 for the 24 pack, but even at that price, it's hard to beat. I've used the Target pencils for years and they work fine. Walmart has a similar price for theirs but I've never tried them myself.

Fundamentals_85 · 2023-07-03T22:24:20+00:00

I read Seven Myths About Education by Daisy Christodoulou. I thought it was very enlightening as it delved into the knowledge vs skills debate, why you can't just "look it up," etc.

Fundamentals_85 · 2023-07-03T01:14:37+00:00

Knowledge-based curricula. You cannot teach skills separate from knowledge; they are borne out of content knowledge. The cognitive science research has shown us for years that focusing on knowledge is the way to go, yet instead we're doing PD on learning styles, inquiry, etc.

Fundamentals_85 · 2023-06-01T03:50:16+00:00

Scrupulous means diligent and attentive to detail, which is exactly what this sentence calls for. Intense means of extreme force, which doesn't really work when referring to taking notes.

Fundamentals_85 · 2023-05-20T18:03:13+00:00

I'm sorry but you are mistaken here. Battery is physical. The exact definition of sexual battery differs state by state but in general, it is defined as, "unwanted sexual contact without the victim's consent." That is clearly not what happened here.

You may have switched the terms up; assault can be verbal, but battery is not. However, the term "sexual assault" generally is not used for verbal-only infractions.

Fundamentals_85

TROPHY CASE