Teachers On Fire
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15 Best Practices for Substitute Teachers
Make your day a success for everyone involved. Dear Substitute Teacher, We are so grateful for your service to our school communities. You keep the wheels of learning turning when our teachers cannot be present in the classroom. Thank you for being present and for caring for our young learners. Here are a few guidelines,… Continue reading
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It’s Report Card Time and a Student’s Project Is Missing. Now What?
There are better ways to respond than assigning a zero. When report card seasons roll around, it’s the responsibility of the teacher to report on student learning and progress as accurately as possible using the evidence at their disposal. This is not the time to wield grades as currency, rewarding diligent workers with big paychecks… Continue reading
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3 Ways to Build Demanding Writing Tasks for Students in the Age of AI
To produce reliable evidence of student learning, we need to evolve. Artificial intelligence and ChatGPT have disrupted the state of K-12 education. Perhaps disrupted is an understatement. Let’s be real. These tools have dropped an atomic bomb on teaching and learning norms around the world. Teachers of middle and high school students are suddenly asking how on… Continue reading
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How Ryan Howard Exposed Traditional Assessment Practices
“I’d be stupid not to do it. Right?” One of the greatest episodes from The Office — indisputably the funniest sitcom ever created — has a detail buried in it that says something profound about traditional assessment paradigms. The episode, of course, features Michael Scott (Ryan’s office manager) as guest speaker for Ryan’s business school class. True… Continue reading
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How to Respond to AI-Powered Cheating in the Middle Years
Let’s think this through before throwing the book at middle school students. Most teachers remember the conversation around plagiarism and academic dishonesty in their undergraduate programs in college or university. The vibe was intense. Try it, get caught, and you could suffer serious academic penalties. You could fail your course. Be removed from your degree… Continue reading
Teachers on Fire 