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 ...
Teaching Students With PTSD: A Special Ed Teacher’s Guide
By: Mary McLaughlin | Oct 17, 2019
Teaching students with PTSD starts with reading behavior differently. What looks like defiance may sometimes reflect a stress or threat response. Predictable routines, advance warning before transitions, real choices, and a calm place to regroup do more than any consequence chart. Your school's counselor or mental health staff should know ...
Why Are Teachers Underpaid? 3 Wishes for What Would Actually Fix It
By: Jon Konen | Sep 30, 2019
Teachers are underpaid because their pay hasn't kept pace with what other college graduates earn: the Economic Policy Institute puts the gap at 25.2% as of 2025. This piece imagines a different fix: paying teachers on the same scale as senior federal officials. The comparison isn't a policy proposal. It's ...
Teacher Burnout Prevention Strategies: 10 Reminders to Stay Sane
By: Jon Konen | Sep 19, 2019
Practical teacher burnout prevention strategies are the ones built into the workday, not saved for the weekend: planning far enough ahead to stay in front of your students, chunking time into manageable blocks, leaning on grade-level partners, and putting school away at night. These may help reduce burnout, and one ...
Special Education for Administrators: A Do’s and Don’ts Guide
By: Mary McLaughlin | Sep 13, 2019
Special education for administrators comes down to five duties: placement decisions, collaboration between staff, behavior support, inclusion in school events, and knowing the law. Some administrators enter the role with limited preparation in special education law. The IEP team determines placement, and school and district personnel are responsible for implementing ...
8 Teacher Tips for Students From Divorced Families
By: Jon Konen | Sep 10, 2019
Teaching students from divorced families means managing two households, not one. Follow school policy and any court or custody orders on file when communicating with parents, and provide educational information to each parent who is legally entitled to receive it. Route ambiguous custody documents to administration, and hold separate conferences ...
7 Reasons You Will Want to Teach Like a Rock Star: Meet Hal Bowman!
By: Jon Konen | Sep 4, 2019
Teach Like a Rock Star is a professional development event for teachers created by Hal Bowman, a former band director who moved into core-content classroom teaching before speaking to educators nationwide. In this interview, Bowman answers seven questions on classroom culture, his podcast, and why he rejects the edu-guru label. I ...
Playing with a Full Deck: 53 Qualities of a Great Teacher
By: Jon Konen | Aug 29, 2019
The qualities of a great teacher aren't a single trait but a full deck: compassion, empathy, grit, creativity, and adaptability working together. No teacher starts with every card in hand. The strongest teachers keep building theirs year after year, picking up new qualities through reflection, practice, and plain persistence in ...
How to Make Curriculum More Engaging: 8 Teacher Strategies
By: Teacher.org Editorial Staff | Aug 28, 2019
Making curriculum more engaging rarely means replacing it. You can't always change the scope and sequence you're handed, but you can change how it lands: room transformations, genius hour, movement, self-assessment, celebrations of learning, music and drama, games and quests, and structured discussion all work inside a mandated curriculum. Part 4 ...
Taking Risks as a Teacher: 9 Reasons Not to Listen to the Jokers
By: Jon Konen | Aug 27, 2019
Taking risks as a teacher means trying something outside your routine even when it might flop. Two common obstacles are what Hope and Wade King call "jokers": your own self-doubt, plus colleagues who discourage you. Start small, check safety and school policy, and expect to revise. Part 3 of 5 … ...
7 Steps for Putting the “PH” Back in PHUN in Your Classroom
By: Jon Konen | Aug 27, 2019
Making lessons more engaging starts with swapping passive note-copying and straight lectures for active, experiential tasks students actually do something with. Build in student choice, quick checks for understanding, and multi-modal activities: projects, discussion, hands-on work, instead of relying on notes and a test. Active, meaningful learning experiences can be ...