Andrea @teachbk Twitter profile

Pinned Tweet

Andrea

1 month

I talked with @cultofpedagogy and @ireneteacher8 about getting young readers to annotate in ways that are meaningful for them. Take a listen

Cult of Pedagogy

@cultofpedagogy

1 month

The effectiveness of annotation can vary depending on how it's taught. This week, two teachers share their classroom-tested approaches: 3rd grade teacher Andrea Castellano ( @teachbk ) and high school English teacher Irene Yannascoli.

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Andrea

@teachbk

2 years

Someone (not in education) was surprised to hear that teachers have to set up their own classrooms. She thought we had someone to do that for us and we just walk in the first day and start teaching. I had to explain it takes days of prep + physical labor. And we don’t get paid.

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@teachbk

1 year

this is community

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@teachbk

1 year

I can’t take my kids out today because they have too much homework. This is a regular occurrence on weekends. Nights are also booked around assignments. Homework is a thief of family time.

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@teachbk

10 months

some people are just determined to find something to complain about

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@teachbk

1 year

on attendance parties: rewarding children for having strong immune systems is ableist rewarding children for having access to reliable transport is classist rewarding children for coming to school sick is dangerous rewarding children for things beyond their control is _______

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@teachbk

1 year

@Live2love76 Telling me to homeschool is extremely unhelpful

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@teachbk

2 years

So in case anyone didn’t know. Yes. We haul bookcases and drag desks around the room. We climb on furniture to hang charts, put up bulletin boards. In elementary, we teach multiple subjects so there are tons of books & manipulatives to organize. Centers to create. Signs. Tech.

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@teachbk

2 years

what we get/what we create

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@teachbk

2 years

so many NYC parents want to be progressive until it’s school applications time

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@teachbk

2 years

Just because teachers are salaried employees does not obligate us to spend nights, weekends & vacations engaged in prep work for the teaching The Dept. of Ed could never afford to pay us an hourly rate considering what we do. They got a great deal giving us a 10-month salary

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@teachbk

2 years

Baskets & bins of stuff every year to take out of the closet and put somewhere with kid-friendly labels. Name tags need to be made & put on everything. And of course we have to clean everything before it can be used. All of this is normal. We usually get about 4 hours.

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@teachbk

2 years

Oh yeah. And we don’t often have enough tables or desks for the number of students on our roster. Teachers can be found roaming the school in search of extra furniture. It’s kind of a hunger games situation those first few days

John Aldis

@johnaldis

2 years

@teachbk I’m not from the US so I don’t know how it’s done there (and I’m not a teacher either) but I would hope the school provides a room with desks and chairs, or at least a *supply* of desks and chairs you can fetch them from? Whatever you do should be on paid time, though.

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@teachbk

2 years

teachers are subjected to a ridiculous amount of scrutiny compared to other professions.

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@teachbk

2 years

Parents: Schools shouldn’t teach that. We’re the parents. We’ll handle it. Schools: If you were, in fact, handling it, there’s be no need for this conversation but here we are

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@teachbk

3 years

A teacher at my daughter's school passed away from COVID a few days ago. It's really hard to watch children grieve.

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@teachbk

3 years

Can we stop saying children are resilient? It’s not resilience, we’re just forcing them to deal with difficult things and they deal with it because they have no power and no choice in the matter.

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@teachbk

2 years

I’m not debating anyone who wants to tell me I’m complaining for simply discussing the details of my chosen occupation. I can love my job AND publicly advocate for better working conditions for myself and my colleagues.

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@teachbk

3 years

Yesterday during a PD they asked what’s causing you stress & I put in the chat “they keep making us go back to normal and normal wasn’t working” Today in a meeting my principal asked me what I meant by that. She gave me the chance to say more. So I did.

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@teachbk

2 years

Some people are saying that good teachers eliminate the need for smaller classes. Larger classes are more work regardless of how good your lessons are. Even a highly effective teacher can’t spend the same amount of time with 30 students as with 20.

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@teachbk

10 months

It's hardly a conspiracy. Students need to drink water during the school day. Instead of limiting their intake we should be ensuring they have unrestricted access to water (and bathrooms.)

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@teachbk

3 years

Stop saying parents are “SCARED” to send their kids to school. It’s patronizing. Parents are AWARE of the dangers of COVID and they are AWARE of the failure of school systems to prioritize their children’s health and well-being.

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@teachbk

2 years

teachers have been saying for 3 years now how overworked & disrespected they feel AND have been offering plenty of thoughtful, reasonable solutions that no one cares to listen to spare me the “why are teachers leaving the profession in droves” thinkpieces at this time

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@teachbk

1 year

Wow. This is getting attention. But for a reason. We only have so many hours in a day. It’s not healthy or sustainable to spend the majority of our waking hours working. As a teacher, I know what it feels like to work around the clock. I don’t want that for my kids.

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@teachbk

9 months

Teachers should NEVER threaten students with a future at McDonald’s or any other minimum wage job. What about the kid whose parent who works currently there, or the kid who might work there one day. What message does that send about class/wages/dignity of labor? It’s not a joke

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@teachbk

2 years

I just got the best compliment. A parent said she knows her daughter is happy in my class because she comes home singing and she never used to do that before

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@teachbk

4 years

@FotoCourtney @wokeSTEMteacher Many teachers mistakenly believe they’re doing their students a favor by imposing such rules bc they confuse high expectations with dynamics of control and compliance.

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@teachbk

11 months

Enough. I don’t want to hear about pandemic teaching from anyone who didn’t teach in a pandemic. What teachers did to keep kids learning in those years is nothing less than a goddamn miracle. Anyone who can’t see that is hereby dismissed from the conversation

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@teachbk

2 years

Teachers do pre-assessment & planning for instruction for our students but PD facilitators do not do that for us. We will all receive the same instruction no matter our needs. That irks me.

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@teachbk

2 years

It’s clear that even though the teaching profession is held in high regard, teachers are not.

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@teachbk

2 years

since this tweet is doing the numbers i just wanna say @NYCMayor please #RestoreTheCuts to our public schools

Marnie Geltman

@MarnieGeltman

2 years

This explains how cutting public school money will lead to privatization. Read this if you care about public education in NYC.

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@teachbk

1 year

@margosteines I get emails from the teachers telling me he’s in danger of failing.

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@teachbk

10 months

FOR THE RECORD it's not just one person on twitter there are lots of adults out there resentful of kids wanting to fulfill their bodily functions

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@teachbk

2 years

good test scores are so important we are willing to sacrifice our childrens' education for them

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@teachbk

2 years

so much of our school-related stress could be alleviated if principals just consulted with teachers before making decisions

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@teachbk

3 years

Bad stuff we need to stop doing to kids: -Cram them in a chair for hours at a time -Refuse to let them talk to each other -Stress & test them because we need the “data” -Shame them for noncompliance -Withhold water/food -Blame them for not meeting the standards

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@teachbk

1 year

my suggestion is a school-wide 🌻🌻"Grow Party" 🌻🌻where each child is celebrated for something they got better at. it would be based on their academic, social, or personal goals for themselves + they themselves decide (with help if needed) what they're proud of. everyone wins

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@teachbk

3 years

Educators are dealing with immense pressure to go back to normal. But 2 little things keep getting in the way: 1) Normal wasn't really working. 2) We can't.

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@teachbk

2 years

Funny how everyone wants to hear from teachers AFTER all the decisions have been made

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@teachbk

3 years

More bad stuff we do to kids: -Make playtime contingent upon their ability to comply -Withhold bathroom rights -Demean their language -Critique their beliefs -Weaponize our voice/ physical size/ presence -Behavior “systems” -Stifle any display of emotions -Bore them in class

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@teachbk

1 year

I don’t believe in penalizing students for failing to turn in homework. Same for lateness, attendance, dress code, and even some behaviors such as sleeping in class. We don’t always know the whole story. Hold children accountable for what they can control.

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@teachbk

1 year

teachers have preps. we don't have sustained, uninterrupted work time. there's a difference.

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@teachbk

1 year

@alexespind It actually doesn’t

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@teachbk

4 years

“Send kids back to school” they said. “They need to socialize” they said.

Arthur Goldstein

@TeacherArthurG

4 years

The new school lunch.

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@teachbk

2 years

don’t know if I’m doing this teaching thing right or wrong lately but my tiniest student sidled up to me today and whispered, “Bring garlic bread tomorrow. But just for me.”

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@teachbk

2 years

sometimes classroom management means you pause & laugh instead

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@teachbk

2 years

I fail to see how keeping schools open will keep businesses going if all the parents have to take off from work for 10 days to care for their sick kids

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@teachbk

2 years

The pandemic affected different age groups differently, but I am noticing something with this new group who was very young (5/6y) during lockdown. It's not that they don't know how to do things. I think they're not used to being expected to do things on their own.

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@teachbk

5 months

Teaching is so mentally taxing I forget words. Not just Tier 2 words. Words like “desk.” This only happens during the school year and I’m fine during the summer. The brain can only take so much

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@teachbk

3 years

Admin: So, how's it going Teachers: this virus will continue to ravage our schools, lives, and society at large unless we take some immediate & drastic measures, can you support that Admin: tell us how you're practicing self-care

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@teachbk

2 years

The fact that very few teachers asking for remote learning actually want remote learning should be a clue how strongly we believe in-person school is not safe

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@teachbk

5 months

How quickly the public turns on teachers, librarians & other civil servants the moment we fail to meet the demands they believe they’re somehow entitled to…

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@teachbk

2 years

Decided today would be the last Sunday work day. It is not fair to me or my kids for me to work a 6-day week. I have no idea how I'm going to change this, but I have to.

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@teachbk

6 months

Police do not belong in our schools. Police do not belong in our schools. Police do not belong in our schools.

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@teachbk

2 years

@munson_jo and how would they know. it’s invisible labor

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@teachbk

2 years

Parents and educators need to accept that this generation of children will not age as we did— their timeline will vary from our timeline. They’ll hit some benchmarks later but they’re already hitting some decades ahead of schedule. Talk to any kid about the world, you’ll see.

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@teachbk

1 year

not every educator (or ed-adjacent tweeter) will find Abbott Elementary realistic. but that's the point. if you can't relate to working in a school like Abbott, maybe see it as an opportunity to gain some perspective rather than dismissing the lived experiences of those who can

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@teachbk

2 years

one thing that could have helped improve students’ social emotional state this year: canceling the tests. instead, we had meetings about the importance of SEL and then tested them even harder

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@teachbk

3 years

Basically, anything that denies their right to be a child, make mistakes, learn freely, and have fun is my enemy.

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@teachbk

9 months

Parents make a lot of unrealistic demands of educators that sound doable to them bc they’re used to dealing with one or a few children. If you aren’t in schools it’s hard to understand the logistical challenges of caring for dozens or even hundreds of children at a time

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@teachbk

2 years

I don't want praise for doing something I was coerced into doing. Please don't thank me for being in school. Not this week.

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@teachbk

1 year

they make early childhood benchmarks developmentally inappropriate & say it’s a problem when children don’t meet them while adults point fingers at each other the kids internalize the failure as their own when the real problem is that we don’t need 4 year olds to read, but play

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@teachbk

1 year

@jaimecaldwell @margosteines Upper grades. The age when mental health is most fragile and they are the most stressed. Spending all day every day doing work is not good

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@teachbk

2 years

@ObsessedTeach back again because i'm still mad for you. i can't understand how school leaders could have such little respect for teachers. this is such an abuse of power.

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@teachbk

2 years

I have no idea how to plan for this week

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@teachbk

3 years

Everyone might hate me soon bc I plan to spend the next 4 months talking about how we should stop doing bad stuff to kids. Doing bad stuff to kids is universally recognized as NOT what our work is. Yet we do bad stuff to kids every day. Let me explain:

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@teachbk

4 years

just got off a staff information session zoom. i want to quit. what they’re doing to us and to the kids. it’s nothing short of criminal.

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@teachbk

4 years

If you’re a teacher and you’re still assigning homework PLEASE reflect and realign your practice to suit the current reality

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@teachbk

2 years

lesson plans are a waste of time

The Modest Teacher

@ModestTeacher

2 years

Post your educational take that will get you cancelled.

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@teachbk

2 months

Education would be so much better if policy people would just listen to classroom teachers

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@teachbk

3 years

About to sleep but I don't want to go without saying: I love my school, I respect my leaders & colleagues, and I am by no means complaining about my specific place of work. What I'm describing is a systemic failure of educators to interrogate their own practices + make changes.

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@teachbk

5 months

Teachers' working conditions expose us to constant sensory & cognitive overload. We suffer from decision fatigue. There's also something called empathy fatigue. Google it if you don't know. We chose to do this work. Doesn't mean we don't love it. But these things should be named.

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@teachbk

3 years

“I can’t wait until the state exam scores are released so I can finally find out how my students are performing” said no teacher ever

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@teachbk

2 years

Something really upsetting happened at school today. I won't go into details but I urge my fellow teachers to educate their students about the hijab and what it means to the people who wear it

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@teachbk

1 year

in a meeting listening to a 2nd grade teacher talk about her elaborate PBIS system and having a 💡moment about why her students may have struggled to adjust to my class back in the fall — they were used to doing things for Treats and I wanted them to do things for Reasons

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@teachbk

2 years

How can superintendents really know what authentic teaching looks like when they get the dog & pony show every time they walk into a room? I wonder if their perception of a “typical” classroom is fatally skewed 🤔

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@teachbk

5 months

A thought occurred to me about how the teacher demographics will inevitably shift if we arm educators? Teachers quitting en masse, only to replaced by the adults who are not only ok with, but excited to have guns around children. The implications are terrifying.

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@teachbk

1 year

90% of curriculum planning is searching the internet for a specific resource before you give up and make it yourself

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@teachbk

10 months

@LibraryMegan We need to teach children to listen to their bodies.

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@teachbk

3 years

Come September we have the choice to walk into our collective buildings and do the same old regular ed stuff, or we can make plans now for how we are going to disrupt all the ways we weren't serving students & replace that with positive & loving behavior.

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@teachbk

1 year

Some teachers want to ignore the bad apples among us. I'm a teacher too but I don't universally & unconditionally support all teachers. And I question teachers who do. That doesn't make me a hater. There are some bad teachers out there doing bad things to kids and that's not ok

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@teachbk

9 months

The teacher's workday is not designed for us to create or even modify curriculum. This is why boxed programs are the easiest way for teachers to stay working within contract hours AND the biggest threat to effective instruction.

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@teachbk

2 years

It seems most PD is designed to target the needs of the 5-10th year teacher. There's a concerning lack of support for new teachers + a wealth of untapped knowledge from veterans. I'd love to see someone create a structured tiered PD model that could be replicated for any topic.

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@teachbk

5 months

teaching is so mentally taxing that at some point in the day my brain just turns off and there is pretty much nothing i can do to turn it back on except reboot via sleep sometimes it happens at 9pm sometimes at 4, best case scenario is you can talk to me i just can't respond back

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@teachbk

3 years

As a teacher, I would love to spend time tweeting about teaching. But the constant barrage of COVID-related disruptions is keeping me from being able to plan, process, or think clearly about my job. It’s the 3rd week of school and I’m exhausted.

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@teachbk

3 years

If you're looking to get started, this post by @cultofpedagogy provides a really nice overview on specific ways we can do better by our students. #teachertwitter #edchat #equity #postpandemic

No More Easy Button: A Suggested Approach to Post-Pandemic Teaching | Cult of Pedagogy

With this fresh start, let’s take the wisdom we've gained over the last year and use it. Let's not go back to the way things used to be.

www.cultofpedagogy.com

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@teachbk

2 years

Just got to my front door after a long day at school and realized I don’t want to go in. I kept my children home from school because of COVID I don’t want to be the one who brings it to them I hate this so much

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@teachbk

2 years

It’s so hard watching Muslim kids have to participate in Christmas festivities. We have them performing Christmas songs for holiday shows, making Christmas art, watching Christmas movies during recess… and it’s not that the teachers are unaware. They don’t seem to care.

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@teachbk

2 months

What justifies making 8 year old children sit for a four hour test. Really. I need to know. What data can they get from a 4-passage, 25 question test that they can’t get from a 2-passage 15 question test. Someone please explain.

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@teachbk

10 months

Distressing how frequently an educator's propensity for authoritarian tactics in the classroom betrays a dangerous far-right ideology... it appears water bottles are the least of her targets.

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@teachbk

1 year

@MrsRiosTeaches That’s a start.

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@teachbk

3 years

People thinking that teachers will be satisfied once we get the vaccine confuse me. As if we don’t care about our students. 😕

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@teachbk

6 months

I keep seeing tweets comparing elementary to upper level teaching workload. My personal opinion is each has its unique challenges rather than one being harder than the other. Wondering if anyone out there has taught both and can confirm this—? #TeacherTwitter

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@teachbk

3 years

So if that bad stuff on the list is still happening in our schools after the whole pandemic year when we all learned that these are big no-no’s, well, it’s kind of all our jobs to fight, too, no?

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@teachbk

3 months

Teachers, Ramadan is coming. A reminder: Don’t assume you know which of your students are Muslim. Not every girl wears hijab. Not all names are religiously identifiable. Some children come from multifaith families. You don’t always know.

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@teachbk

2 years

turns out not wanting to get COVID in school is a pretty popular idea after all

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@teachbk

2 years

I really dislike how meetings about my job keep me from doing my job

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@teachbk

1 year

Ask a room full of teachers: How do you teach reading? Then ask the students: What do you love about reading? Chances are, the responses won’t match up.

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@teachbk

3 years

at some point I might talk about literacy or math or PBL or G&T or anything I actually teach but for now this is so heavy on my mind you're going to have to bear with me. the kids are not ok and they have not been ok for a long time, so let's address this here and now.

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@teachbk

2 years

@IcaRewitz That last part 💆🏻‍♀️

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@teachbk

3 years

Teachers have NOT been working double duty throughout this pandemic just to hear politicians tell us the school year was a loss.

David Cruz

@CWEBCRUZER

3 years

. @AndrewYang says this has been a lost year for kids. He is a proponent of Summer Rising. He wants 10K tutors to tutor 100K kids, and he wants more social workers to handle the trauma. He also wants to undo the damage that'll be in place for months and years.

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