I’ve been on both sides of the dilemma. I remember struggling to keep up with planning what would be considered an excellent lesson (according to my understanding then), drained after a long day of talking (over the students sometimes), anxious about what to teach next, having that tugging pain in my stomach, and realizing that today’s planning will drag into midnight. My first year of teaching I remember coming home, my throat aching and my head buzzing as if I was chased by a bee colony. Sure, there were days when I had no choice but survive at my table, trying to catch some needed emotional distress and hoping no…

I’ve recently changed jobs, and my biggest fear was to be as overwhelmed and lost as a felt during my first year of teaching. Besides, I transitioned from being a classroom ESL teacher and having 25-28 students to an ESL push-in model teacher, and that was very new to me. Apart from traveling to different classes to service language learners, the biggest challenge is to figure out what to do with 3-15 English learners of different levels scatteredin different areas, like Social Studies, Math, Science, Writing. Because the kids are in different grades and are at a variety of language levels, I ended up with 7 different content areas and…

With the overwhelming amount of resources available online, its quite hard to track your time looking for what you really need when it comes to your professional development and personal needs. You might end up frustrated with the choices that you have, the quality of resources or even the lack of continuity that you need. In this post, I’m sharing 5 go-to resources that will help your professional development and restore your emotional sanity. 1. Cult Of Pedagogy by Jennifer Gonzalez.  I value this resource for its dedication to quality and research. Jennifer talks about relevant topics in education and provides“what-you-can-do-tomorrow” ideas from the perspective of a classroom teacher. It’s…

I’ve been reactive in what I did and how I felt most of my life. Being reactive means feeling trapped by the situations and thinking you have no control of the outcome. It also means taking on the role of a victim of circumstances and practicing self-pity.   It’s hard not to be reactive. I get it. What could I do if they packed my classroom with 30 children that I need to differentiate for? How could I teach when in the 21st century everything I had was the blackboard and chalk in my classroom? How could I not complain if had neither resources no support of the administration when…

Teachers are believed to take pleasure in shopping at the dollar store for supplies, creating cute worksheets on the computer, crafting for classrooms, being nerdy, reading tons of books and living in libraries, grading papers on a Saturday evening while watching an educational documentary, or other crazy things. And while many teachers do this and enjoy it, there are many educators who want to have nothing to do with school once the final period bell rings and they go home.   Whatever side you are on, you should not feel guilty about that but feel comfortable about doing what gives you joy. Having said that, I do believe being sucked…