If you haven’t figured out how to cut down on the time you spend answering student emails, I may have the answer for you! When I tell other teachers that I have a number of stock email responses ready to go in the Notes app of my iPhone, some of them are relieved to have…
As I was reading Shonda Rhimes’ book The Year of Yes the other day, I started feeling like I wasn’t quite measuring up. In my mind, I had been living the ‘year of yes’ since I was a college freshman, deliberately grabbing every opportunity that came my way, and I had decided that 2016 would…
Every teacher knows that sometimes you have a class that’s super motivated, while another class is barely hanging in there. There’s not necessarily a rhyme or reason for it, it just happens. The solution? I won’t attempt to go into that at the moment, but you can do a variety of activities, see how things…
I know I’m not the only teacher that feels completely wiped out by the end of the workday. I tend to run low on energy whether I’m lecturing on my feet all day, or grading papers from a coffee shop. And since I gave up my regular caffeine fix nearly a year ago, I decided…
When I was preparing to travel to Los Angeles, Thailand, San Diego, and Arizona for a month, I didn’t have the type of schedule that would allow me to exert the time needed to do the type of planning necessary, so I took the most logical steps I could: I jotted notes to myself in…
The other day I was sifting through some old ideas in my ‘Notes’ app, and I stumbled on some helpful student success strategies that never quite saw the light of day, so I thought I’d share them here. These are my top 5 super easy and fun ways to engage students in a way that…
Teaching online while I’ve been traveling for the past 3 weeks has been much more manageable than I expected. Yes, there were mornings in Bangkok where I graded papers on the hotel bathroom while my sister slept in, and one morning in particular that I had a Skype interview for a new school at 6…
(*Disclaimer: This is not an ad for Groupon.com, AffordableAsia.com, or any travel company, I was just super impressed and wanted to share :)). I just finished a 12-day trip to Thailand, and I have to say, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the affordability, ease, and convenience of traveling with a tour group after booking with…
On my recent trips to LA and Thailand, I discovered a few essential travel items that I will never again vacation without. I’ll skip telling you that an iPod, headphones, portable phone charger, and credit card are your essential items- that’s a given. I think the list below might surprise you, and also change the…
I don’t travel as much as I should, since I prefer to save money, don’t typically have the time to plan trips, and tend to enjoy the comforts and convenience of my own town. However, when preparing for my 4-week-long summer trip, I found a few ways to budget, travel more comfortably, and even plan more efficiently….