I Don’t Play the Game of School.

by Heather MacCorkle | Dec 5, 2020 | Education, Learning, Teaching

I recommend, respectfully, that you don’t either. My classes are chock-full of competitive students. Some are competitive with academics, and some are competitive regarding sports or extracurricular activities. Either way, grades determine their future. I also...

Building Community with Breakout Bell-Ringers

by Heather MacCorkle | Nov 8, 2020 | Education, Learning, Teaching, Virtual Learning

AKA – Breakout Bell-Ringers, Part II Last week’s article was about a plan for a new type of bell-ringer assignment called “Breakout Bell-Ringers.” In that article, I detailed how I was going to implement the idea in one class. This week’s article...

Breakout Bell-Ringers Part I

by Heather MacCorkle | Nov 1, 2020 | Education, Learning, Teaching, Virtual Learning

Featured Image Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash One strand of the ELA curriculum that gets neglected sometimes is “Speaking and Listening.” In the virtual learning/hybrid learning environment, students are – interestingly – hesitant to...

Thank You for Asking

by Heather MacCorkle | Oct 24, 2020 | Education, Learning, Teaching, Virtual Learning

Something nice has been happening that I reflected upon this week. Students online have been asking for permission to use the bathroom or to do something that might take them from their desk for a minute. This, combined with students increasingly asking me how my...

Schools Are Not Businesses. Why Do We Treat Them Like They Are?

by Heather MacCorkle | Oct 11, 2020 | Education, Essays, Learning, Teaching

“We really have a great product,” I have heard superintendents say. “We have several offerings for the students,” others have said. What is this? A car lot? A factory? For all the talk about differentiation, personalized learning, SAMR (a model for integrating tech...

To Be or Not to Be Part of the Solution? There Is Only One Answer to That Question.

by Heather MacCorkle | Oct 3, 2020 | Education, Essays, Teaching

If asked to be, the answer is ”Yes.” If not asked, that is still the answer. Isn’t it weird how Shakespeare still entwines himself into our collective consciousness through lines such as those from Hamlet? After being dead for centuries, William Shakespeare...