Category: Teaching

Teachers are the architects of any developing nation. It makes me feel on top whenever I am reminded of the quote, “Teaching is the profession which creates all other professions.” But, I failed miserably to understand the fact that very few of us are into this profession by choice and […]

This last month of school, where I am teaching has become an onslaught of testing for both students and teachers. Testing not only occurs at the beginning of the year with a series of post tests and milestones, but at the end of the year with benchmarks, SAT/ACT, EOPAS, and […]

An investigation of the literature reveals seven personal attributes that teaching assistants (TA) need to function in their day-to-day tasks. These are: 1. Ability to positively relate or interact with students and teachers 2. Disposed to teamwork participation – a team player 3. Disposed to sharing knowledge/teaching 4. Willingness to […]

The reflective approach to teaching practicum debriefing (RATPD) is a strategy that aids University teacher educators and school-based mentors in the task of developing student teachers’ ability to reflect. It is a practical user-friendly tool grounded in Schön’s (1987) reflection-on-action and the idea of Zeichner and Liston (1996) which states […]

“Cover!,” the guard yelled. Everyone fell to the ground and covered his head. I thought it was some kind of drill and started to do the same but the probation officer who issued the command touched my arm and said,” not you, ma’am. So went my first week in the […]

I’ve shared in previous articles some of my college class challenges. Currently, I am tackling beginning algebra. Initially, I had enrolled in pre-algebra but the class was cancelled. I haven’t had math since I was 14. I got a C in basic math back then. Now, I am being exposed […]

Currently I have taught in both the high school and middle school settings. One of the key things that I have noticed between both of these populations is that their ability to do research and answer inquiry style questioning is nonexistent. When I returned to school in 2013 to work […]

Language Formation and Development Children develop language at a very rapid pace from birth up to the age of five. Studies have even suggested that children have been learning language from conception, while they are developing in their mother’s womb. Sensory and brain mechanisms for hearing are developed at 30 […]

I was an inner-city classroom teacher in a new, open-space school, part of a 4th grade team consisting of 4 teachers and 100 students. Sixteen of our students could not read even at the 1st grade level. They were all boys, and of course, these students were the ‘behavior problems’. […]

Children in kindergarten, and even sometimes in preschool, are expected to learn to print the letters of the alphabet correctly. However, often these young children have not developed fine motor skills sufficiently to enable them to experience success when forming the required letter shapes. Many articles have been written to […]