Ariel Serkin's blog

When the world stopped back in March, I wrote that no one knew how to teach in a pandemic. Here we are, 8 months later and we are still learning and adapting every day. I know each teacher has their own unqiue set of challenges this year, but I have found some small wins that I’m happy to share.

Sometimes, your Professional Learning Community is not at your school, but rather with educators from around the world.

No one really knows how to immediately transform an in person class to a distance learning environment. We struggle to provide an equitable education, whatever that looks like, for all our students and make accommodations for differences in learning abilities, home lives, internet access, in addition to mental and physical health.

Students’ preconceived notions about concepts may clash with the material that they are expected to learn. This cognitive dissonance creates discomfort for students. 

The author offers her top 25 reasons (in no particular order) NOT to attend a National Conference or Summer Professional Development.

As high school teachers, we know that understanding how measurement works is crucial for lab skills and for understanding significant figures. We think measurement should be an easy topic for students to learn; especially because we know that teachers begin working with students in elementary school to teach these skills. However, I, and many other teachers, have spent countless hours teaching and reteaching a seemingly simple skill.

Having presented on the topic several times over the summer, I am sharing strategies for helping support diverse learners. As we teachers prepare to go back to school, I have summarized my presentation into a list of ways to help your classroom be inclusive for all learners.