Hold My Chalk

As educators we are constantly told we need to meet targets established by other people.  Many of those people do not have a background in education. We often face many difficulties in the classroom that hinder learning.  Lack of resources, support and prior knowledge are all challenges that teachers face on a daily basis.  As an educator it is critical that we don't succumb to those challenges or collapse under the demands of the job.  We need to see those challenges as obstacles that we can overcome, not as roadblocks.  When we are faced with those challenges we need to charge at them head on with the mentality that I can get this done.  I can do better than you think and I will prove it to you. When others say our students won't succeed, we take that as a dare.  We don't need to be in agreement with them.  We became educators because we have a passion for learning, for seeing others succeed, for inspiring the love of learning.  We go o...

Many educators are plunging into creating digital resources as part of their districts plan to continue instruction while school facilities are closed for the remainder of the school year.  If you have not explored this before now, there are several options available to you in a variety of prices and skillset. The tools we suggest will be free or inexpensive and only focus on creating videos that you can share with students later.  There are options for live video conferencing and some of these tools are designed for that, but we are only focusing on video recording.  This type of learning model would best be classified as asynchronous because you are allowing students to work at different times.  This may be the best option since some of your students may have siblings and limited use of technology at their house. Before we get started, please check with your district to see if there are any restrictions on which tools you may use.  There is a possibility that ...

Here are a few iPhone/iPad apps that are free today.  I don't know how long these will be free, but I thought they might be useful to a few people.  Check them out.  Times Tables and Friends  ($4.99) Stickyboard 2  ($4.99) Tiny Orchestra: Educational Music Game  ($2.99) Star Rover HD: Night Sky Map  ($1.99) DB Meter: Noise Measure  ($1.99) CareerFitosity  ($0.99) Thank you for reading The Cluttered Desk.  You can find me on Twitter  @jasonbengs .  Please feel free to comment on the post and share your ideas with me.  You can also leave a response on The Cluttered Desk Flipgrid page if you would like to leave a comment on this or any other post or podcast episode by going to  https://flipgrid.com/03fa4e01  If you found any value in this post, please share it with others.

When we first start out in education we often think that we know what we're doing. We think that we don't need any help and that everything that we need to know we learned in our education classes. It only takes about three days into the job to realize that our college education did not fully prepare us for every single student that we're going to face. It didn't truly prepare us for how we really should deliver a lesson when we have students on five different levels along with multiple types of disruptions. It didn't prepare us to handle all the routines, all the the daily tasks, all the decisions that we have to make.  This isn't intended to disparage any university program, but just an acknowledgement that there is now way for them to fully prepare you for every student and situation you will face.  Experience is the only true way to learn how to handle all of these different types of situations.  So how do we make up for that information gap? That is a chall...

The beginning of the school year has blown past us, and there are countless things you probably did to for the group of students that will be entered your classroom.  Setting up your room, completing you management plan, writing lesson plans, contacting prospective students, reviewing curriculum updates, and the list goes on. All of those are important, but I think there is something that needs to gravitate to the top as you prepare for each year, but also as you navigate through the year. Find your motivation. At the end of the year you may have been worn out, wondering if you should return to the classroom.  You may not have been wondering at all, but you may have been completely drained emotionally, intellectually and physically.  No matter what the case may be, think back to why you felt called to this profession.  Is that still your driving force?  Have you lost sight of it?  If you have forgotten what drew you to this calling, try to find ways to brin...

I have missed a few weeks with a chaotic start to the year.  Today is Friday the 13th and a full moon so for all of you that are superstitious or believe the lunar cycle has significant impact on your students' behavior I wish you well as you navigate this day.  I believe that weather, light, seasons and astronomic cycles may have some impact on biologic activity, but the most important influencer of students is the teacher in the classroom.  With that out of the way here are the posts and links that caught my attention this week.  I hope some of them serve you well. This first tweet has me reviewing some of the things I have always told teachers about their beginning of the year practices.  I have always believed that relationships are the most important part of what we do as educators, so rules without relationships is the equivalent of a dictatorship. What role will your posted Rules & Expectations play in your classroom this year? Your answer matters. pi...