Teacher Talk
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 ...
Advice for First-Year Teachers: What I’d Tell Myself
By: Jon Konen | May 4, 2022
The best advice for first-year teachers, from a superintendent 23 years in: spend your time on students rather than materials, build relationships before lessons, protect your own resilience, and start saving for retirement early. For this author, relationships ultimately mattered more than the materials and resources he bought. This reflection was ...
Toxic Positivity in Schools: Strategies for School Leaders
By: Jon Konen | Apr 5, 2022
Toxic positivity in schools happens when leaders push relentless optimism instead of addressing what staff are actually dealing with. It can backfire, contributing to sarcasm or resentment when legitimate concerns aren't addressed. The fix isn't less celebration. It's naming the hard reality first, then holding both students and adults to ...
Email Etiquette for School Leaders: When to Hit Send
By: Jon Konen | Feb 11, 2022
Email etiquette for school leaders comes down to when you send, not just how you write. Draft whenever your own schedule allows, then use schedule send so the message lands during the staff workday. Many leaders reserve after-hours sends for emergencies, following their district's own communication policy. A recent post from ...
Advocating for Public Education: A Superintendent’s Guide
By: Jon Konen | Nov 15, 2021
Advocating for public education means telling the story of what happens in your classroom, showing up where funding decisions get made, and connecting your school to the community that pays for it. Teachers hold the credibility policymakers lack. The work is small, repeated, and local. My first teaching contract was for ...
Online Bachelor’s Degree in Teaching: 50 Certification Programs for 2026
By: Amanda Castillo | Nov 8, 2021
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Best States for Teacher Pay vs. Cost of Living
By: Amanda Castillo | Oct 15, 2021
Among the best states for teacher pay vs. cost of living, West Virginia offers the smallest gap between home prices and salary: a typical home there costs $182,704, compared with a $56,610 median high school teacher salary. Hawaii has the widest gap, at $762,431. Nationally, that gap is about $299,734, ...
National Principals Month: 45 Ways to Celebrate Your Principal
By: Jon Konen | Oct 5, 2021
National Principals Month runs the entire month of October. It is organized by the National Principals Association, the National Association of Elementary School Principals, and the American Federation of School Administrators. It is a separate observance from School Principals' Day, which falls on May 1. In my experience, the hardest job ...
Five Ways for You and Your School to Thrive This Year
By: Brian Miller | Aug 30, 2021
How to thrive as a teacher isn't a formula, and workload, staffing, resources, and administrative support shape the job as much as mindset does. Within what an individual can influence, this essay offers five strategies one teacher recommends: give more than you take, face hard facts, invest for the long ...
The Pros and Cons of Being a Principal: An Honest Look
By: Mary McLaughlin | Jul 29, 2021
The pros and cons of being a principal come down to reach versus distance: you shape a whole building's culture and earn a median $105,870, but you trade classroom relationships for evaluations, budgets, and every conflict that walks through your door. Most principals start as teachers and miss the room. If ...
How to Streamline Curriculum: 5 Questions to Guide What to Cut or Keep
By: Catherine Dorian | Jul 27, 2021
Streamlining curriculum means deciding what to keep, cut, or combine so instruction matches the time you actually have, not the content available to cover. The clearest way to do it is to run each unit through a short set of questions about student choice, skill overlap, and what students walk ...