Blog
How to Keep Kids Off Their Phones While Homeschooling
By: Scott Wilson | Sep 2, 2026
The most reliable way to keep kids off their phones while homeschooling is to agree on a spot where the phone goes during schoolwork, out of reach and out of sight. Set a clear return point, keep the work surface phone-free, and switch off notifications before the session starts.
Teachers have been working on this problem for a long time. Now it's your kitchen table.
Eyes down ...
Growing and Developing Professionally: Danielson Domain 4e
By: Jon Konen | Feb 12, 2018
Growing and developing professionally means taking ownership of your own learning instead of waiting for a district to assign it: reading, reflective practice, peer feedback, and formal coursework all count. In the 2013 Danielson Framework for Teaching, this is Domain 4e, one of several teacher-practice frameworks districts use, and it's ...
Participating in the Professional Community: Danielson 4d
By: Jon Konen | Feb 12, 2018
Participating in the professional community is component 4d of Charlotte Danielson's Framework for Teaching, covering what you do outside your own classroom. In the framework, the component includes relationships with colleagues, a culture of professional inquiry, service to the school, and participation in school and district projects. The rubric you're ...
Teacher Safety in Special Education: What Districts Owe You
By: Mary McLaughlin | Feb 9, 2018
Teacher safety is not only about lockdowns and building security. For teachers working with students who have significant behavioral needs, the daily risk is being bitten, hit, or injured by a child in crisis. The protection that actually holds up is a written safety plan built into the student's IEP. Back ...
Parent Teacher Communication: 6 Questions for Working With Families
By: Jon Konen | Feb 9, 2018
Parent-teacher communication works best when it's frequent, two-way, and started before there's a problem. Make a positive contact early, ask each family how they prefer to be reached, and keep a record. Save phone calls and face-to-face meetings for anything that needs tone, nuance, or a hard conversation. Who are the ...
5 Questions for Better Teacher Record Keeping
By: Jon Konen | Jan 28, 2018
Accurate record-keeping means capturing academic, attendance, and behavioral data consistently enough to guide instruction and hold up in a conversation with a parent. The strongest systems pair a digital platform, such as PowerSchool or Infinite Campus, for shareable data with a simple daily habit, such as a clipboard or checklist, ...
11 Strategies to Encourage Students to Own Their Learning
By: Amy Konen | Jan 19, 2018
How often have you run out of time during a lesson and it simply ends with a lot of teacher talk and not enough time for student processing? Many times, I have found myself doing the talking when it is time to head out for lunch and kids simply pack ...
5 Questions to Tackle When Reflecting on Teaching
By: Jon Konen | Jan 19, 2018
Reflecting on teaching means deliberately reviewing your lessons, your relationships with students, and your own growth so patterns don't repeat by accident. The strongest teachers build it into daily, weekly, and end-of-year routines, not just after something goes wrong. A short list of guiding questions, asked consistently, does more for ...
Demonstrating Flexibility and Responsiveness (Danielson 3e)
By: Jon Konen | Jan 19, 2018
Demonstrating flexibility and responsiveness is Danielson component 3e: a teacher's skill at adjusting a lesson while it is happening. Observers look for three things — adjustments backed by evidence, willingness to follow student questions, and persistence when students struggle. The 2022 framework renamed it Responding Flexibly to Student Needs. A teaching ...
6 Questions to Tackle in Using Assessment in Instruction
By: Jon Konen | Dec 23, 2017
Using assessment in instruction means treating formative checks (quizzes, exit tickets, class discussion) and summative tests as two different tools with two different jobs, then actually changing tomorrow's lesson based on what the data shows. The distinction that trips up new teachers: formative data should reshape instruction right away, not ...
Student Behavior During the Holidays: 5 Potential Stressors
By: Amy Konen | Dec 21, 2017
Student behavior during the holidays can shift for reasons that aren't obvious from the outside. This teacher's account describes five potential stressors she has observed in her own classroom: inconsistent structure, overstimulation, calendar countdowns, unsupportive classrooms, and too many special events. What helps one student may not help another. It's here, ...