Author Archives: katelynwilhelmi
A Quest for Meaningful Test Prep
Teaching to the test seems to be a necessary evil sometimes. Since I teach ELA, I often feel like pulling out old ‘Released Items’ from previous years' state tests is considered to be the best - and only - way ...
Your Happiness Matters: How To Give Yourself A Boost
January isn’t the easiest time to be happy. Maybe you’re not where you want to be right now in your teaching journey. Maybe you’re not happy living in the middle of nowhere with very few friends and family close by, ...
Give Your Vision A Refresh
Remember that ‘vision’ you wrote waaaaay back in July that gave the nitty-gritty details of what your classroom was going to look like, how your students were going to act, and how you were going to transform the lives of ...
Vision and goal-setting are probably the most important work we do as teachers during the summer months. The lessons learned from the previous year are fresh in our memories, but the promise of new beginnings of the next year are ...
Three Dos and Don’ts to Start the Year Right
Rule to the wise: Do not put your 7th grade students in full-fledged group work the first day of school. This may seem obvious, and I’m sorry if I insult anyone, but this is something I did and actually thought ...
We’re faced with choices every day. Some, are small -- Go for a run or watch a movie? Call a friend or go on GChat? Go out to dinner or eat at home? But what about the big choices, the ...
Stark Reality: 857 Students Drop Out Every Hour
Pictures of a recent Washington D.C. demonstration seemed to be all over social media recently to illustrate an important point: 857 students in the United States drop out of school every hour of every school day. Quite frankly, this blows ...
