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 ...
Why Is Public Education Important? A Principal’s Case
By: Jon Konen | Jul 2, 2018
Why is public education important? Public school systems have a legal obligation to provide access to eligible students regardless of protected characteristics, and to provide a free appropriate public education to eligible students with disabilities. Free K-12 schooling also aims to build informed citizens and prepare students for work, training, ...
Special Education Labels: The 13 IDEA Disability Categories
By: Mary McLaughlin | Jun 6, 2018
Special education labels are the IDEA disability categories that schools use when identifying students who need services, and federal regulation defines thirteen of them. An eligibility category is part of determining whether a student qualifies for IDEA services. The student's individual needs then drive the IEP. We live in a post-modern ...
3 Reasons Principals Should Celebrate Teacher Evaluations
By: Jon Konen | May 22, 2018
Teacher evaluation feels less like an audit and more like a celebration of growth when principals pair evidence-based reflection, using a framework like Danielson, where adopted, with specific positive feedback and a relationship built on trust. There's no universally established ratio for balancing praise and growth areas, but naming both ...
Recruiting New Teachers: 5 Reasons Every Educator Should Start Now
By: Jon Konen | May 17, 2018
Recruiting new teachers starts with the people already in the classroom. Students decide how they feel about teaching by watching their own teachers, so what they see matters. Named pathways like Educators Rising, Grow Your Own programs, and CTE education courses turn that influence into a real route into the ...
7 Strategies to Combat Community Opposition to Public Schools
By: Jon Konen | May 7, 2018
Community opposition to public schools is best answered with visibility, not rebuttal. Schools that publish what's working, host open forums, invite critics inside, and talk with neighbors directly build enough public trust that organized criticism struggles to gain traction. Arguing point by point on social media usually backfires and makes ...
When a Student Dies: A Teacher’s Reflection on Grief
By: Mary McLaughlin | May 2, 2018
There's no single right way to grieve when a student dies. Teachers may experience many common grief reactions, including denial, anger, sadness, bargaining, and eventual acceptance, but grief doesn't follow a fixed set of stages or sequence. Talk to your class honestly, using the words "death" and "died" rather than ...
A Day in the Life of a Principal: 12,000 Steps
By: Jon Konen | Apr 30, 2018
In this principal's account, the day runs from before 7 AM to after 5 PM, with much of it spent moving throughout the school: hallway patrols, playground supervision, lunchroom cleanup, classroom walkthroughs, and crisis support for at-risk students. He tracked his typical Monday step by step, and it added up ...
What Is a Harkness Discussion? A Teacher’s Guide
By: Michelle Areaux | Apr 19, 2018
A Harkness discussion is a student-led method in which students sit in a circle or oval, taking turns to pose and answer questions while the teacher guides rather than leads. It originated at Phillips Exeter Academy through Edward Harkness's 1930 gift, with traditional groups of 12 students and one teacher. ...
8 Ways Teachers Can Build a Positive School Culture
By: Jon Konen | Apr 17, 2018
Teacher leaders build a positive school culture by owning what they can control: consistent behavior systems such as PBIS, deliberate staff and student recognition, shared expectations, and cross-grade connections such as buddy classrooms. None of these actions require a principal's initiative. A teacher who starts small in their own classroom ...
When Special Education Teachers Get Married
By: Mary McLaughlin | Mar 27, 2018
Step parenting a child with special needs means joining a family mid-story, learning a diagnosis you didn't grow up with, and giving up the just-us time you expected. This is one special education teacher's honest account of marrying into it, including what helped and what nobody warned her about. Last Saturday ...