I have said and I have heard countless other say things like, "I learn more from my students thanI can ever hope to teach them."  Today I had an experience that serves as and example of how students can become the instructor. Teaching summer school is rarely boring.  I teach makeup credit English and each time I have had some major revelations about all of  my students, past present and future.  This year has been no exception.  We had just finished reading an article about Anne Frank and our discussion  steered it's way into  a comparison of hardships today and back then.  Obviously  none of my students felt they had it worse than Anne Frank, but the conversation took an unexpected turn into a comparison of my generations's hardships  to the young people of today. A young lady emphatically stated that because of the internet, social media and personal electronic devices their life was much more complicated and difficult than mine or generations before me was.  in

5/29 I keep mentioning how life is unfolding in my videos that focus on my struggle with anxiety and depression.  I thought I would share with those who were curious what that phrase actually meant.  Just prior to videoing the last installment (number 7)  of My Struggle with Anxiety and Depression:  A Teachers Story I had a very difficult 72 hours.  My mother-in-law fell, who lives with us,  in the early morning hours. and had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance. A student who had become very much like family to me decided to keep a stash of weed in my classroom inside her purse.  On my way home I discovered my mother-in-law was diagnosed with cancer.  A friend of my son's tried to commit suicide in my house, she is better now.  And in the evening my mother had a stroke and is in the hospital on the same floor with my mother-in-law.   Needless to say I am worn out.  My wife is exhausted and school just keeps moving forward  at a relentless pace.  When I talked about the ma

There’s a huge controversy boiling across The teaching and education landscape right now. Some people are saying Betsy DeVos has rekindled the flame of "Larger Class Sizes and Fewer Teachers." Others are saying That it flies in the face of common sense. Smaller classes and more teachers is the way to go. But you know what?  This is not a new debate!   "While DeVos is under siege for her comment, she’s not the first secretary of education to suggest schools might be wiser to invest in stronger teachers rather than smaller classes. Arne Duncan, secretary of education for most of Obama’s tenure, argued, “We spent billions of dollars to reduce class size when we could instead give teachers higher salaries in exchange for larger classrooms, thereby attracting much more talented teachers.”  https://www.ajc.com/blog/get-schooled/betsy-devos-reignites-debate-whether-class-size-matters/VDHjWAD0HvkusJ666SJNxM/ They’re all wrong. Every. Single. Person. That