Books Are Meant to Be Discussed, Not Banned Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! Last summer, I served on the jury of my first murder trial. We heard all kinds of griping testimony, viewed extensive forensic evidence, and witnessed dramatic outbursts from the defense lawyer, […]
Suzy Winter
Middle school Language Arts teacher in the private school sector and loving every moment of it. After 17 years of public school life, it is a welcome change, but I will always advocate and lift up my fellow educators. Our profession, no matter where the classroom, is not for the faint of heart, but for those who teach with all their heart.
Posted inPedagogy
The Secret Ingredients of Lesson Planning
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! This past Christmas, my family decided to organize our own version of the Great British Baking Show (or GBBS). We each had to make our own Signature dessert for the approval of three judges, my in-laws, and my oldest daughter. The […]
Posted inAsk a Teacher
Organizing Ideas from the Queen of Organized Chaos
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! Imagine a substitute teacher dumping your desk drawers out on the top of your desk because they wanted to “reorganize it.” That is what happened to my cooperating teacher during my student teaching days. My cooperating teacher’s organizing skills […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Student Engagement Strategies From Disney World
This is part 2 of a 2-part post on strategies to increase student engagement. You can read part 1 here. Recently I spent time at Disney World. I had the time of my life on a ride called The Rise of the Resistance. In part 1 of this 2-part post, I explained the components of that special […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
What Teachers Can Learn From a Disney World Ride
Part 1: Overcome Resistance With Excitement and Encouragement Suzy Winter is an 18 year veteran Middle School English teacher from Texas. She seriously loves working with students, but also loves encouraging those in the education field either through writing her posts on TER, or leading professional development courses. Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Opinion: What Public Schools Can Learn From Private Schools
Students each wearing matching uniforms calmly making their way to classes. Classes full of well-behaved, eager-to-learn children. Or classes full of snobby, entitled students daring you to challenge them. The latter are some of the ideas – albeit – mostly wrong I’ve had about private schools in my hometown and in general. Last Spring, I […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Check Your Toxic Positivity and Correct Your Word Choices
How many times this past year during pandemic teaching did you hear, “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle.” How many times after hearing that “verse” have you felt like a complete failure? Well, here’s the deal – that’s not actually a verse, but a variation of this one: No temptation has overtaken […]
Posted inCOVID-19
A Year Later After I Resigned From Teaching in a Pandemic
I’m one of those people who liked the app called Timehop that shows pictures and statuses from social media from prior years. This morning, there was one of my little dogs, Emerson, before we had to put him down due to health complications. The image was of him sitting in my garden, tilting his little […]