"Adversity, how we handle that, determines what comes forward." -Frank Martin (South Carolina Mens Basketball Coach) (This is a series of posts sharing the quote I write on my whiteboard each week. As an English teacher, I feel responsible to point out that, technically, "quote" is a verb, but colloquially, it's generally accepted as …
Author: Josh Ecker
Practice What You Teach
For me, especially in my first two years teaching, I got so wrapped up in teaching English that I forgot to continue enjoying English for myself. This year I've jump-started my reading and writing practices and rediscovered why I wanted to become an English teacher in the first place. This rediscovery has elevated my passion …
Activity Idea: Build-a-Bookmark
Re-reading books I was assigned when I was in high school, I'm often surprised how much more I like them on the second read. Part of the reason for this, I think, is that when a book is assigned by a teacher, the student loses some ownership of his reading. Reading workshop (which I'm a …
PBL Basics #1: Challenging Problems & Questions
Note: This series of posts is inspired by Larmer, Mergendoller, and Boss's (2015) recently released book, Setting the Standard for Project Based Learning. It is a great book for anyone looking to get into or learn more about project/inquiry based learning. These posts are just a small sample of the pedagogical tools you will find inside. A full …
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What Bloom Would Say About My Curriculum
Now that the school year is coming to a close, I'm starting to reflect on the year as a whole, what I will keep the same and what I'll change. This year was a big step forward for me in terms of curriculum development. I created a standards-based curriculum in which I analyzed the learning …
Learning and Teaching in the Modern Age 