In a single school day, teachers make approximately 1,500 decisions. If, in one 45-minute class period, a high school teacher makes roughly 218 decisions as they teach, then they have only a short window of time to create lesson plans, update grades, upload assignments, write emails, and perform other tasks that can distract attention from […]
Christine Banko
Christine Banko has a master’s degree in teaching and is a National Boards Certified educator of adult/young adult English-language arts. Her eight years of high school teaching experience in western Washington were preceded by a career in journalism, where she was a contributing writer and editorial assistant at Yes! Media. She is known for her expertise in developing creative and collaborative curriculum for diverse learners, resulting in student growth and a positive classroom culture.
Posted inEnglish Language Learners
Writing in Reverse: A strategy to strengthen student writing
In the high school English classroom, one assessment continues to reign supreme: the essay. Informative, argumentative, and narrative essays have stood the test of time and for good reason. Essays allow students to showcase a multitude of skills across the common core, from research to literary analysis, creative writing to conventions. Not to mention the metacognitive […]
Posted inEnglish Language Learners
How to Navigate Censorship in a High School English Classroom
At a faculty meeting, a colleague once whispered to me, “So, what do you actually do in your English class if everyone already knows how to read and write?” Though it was an innocent enough question from a chemistry teacher, it brought me to the halting realization that the abstract nature of a high school […]