Blog
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Impeachment, Explained: Five Things People Get Wrong
It always surprised me how people were so shocked by the fact that Trump was not removed from office after he was impeached the first time. That was, until I discovered just how prevalent misconceptions regarding both the process and history of impeachment actually are. As soon as it was announced that the House had returned articles of impeachment the first time around, the first thing I did was look up the exact party balance in the Senate: it was obvious that it was just not going to happen. Since the 1960s, divided government has been the norm in American… Read more.
8–12 minutes -
What a $1 Million Bet Can Teach Us About Investing — and What It Can’t
In my experience, the stock market occupies a strange place in student curiosity. They are eager to learn about it, are familiar with the term “investing” and have a vague understanding that it is tied wealth-building. However, the initial enthusiasm fades quickly into disappointment when confronted with reality: the stock market is not an easy way to get rich fast. In fact, it is confusing, abstract, and, let’s be honest–kinda boring when explained in the way most textbooks attempt to explain it. Terms like diversification, index funds, exchange, brokerage firm can drain the life out of a classroom faster than… Read more.
5–7 minutes -
Guided Notes: What Actually Works and 5 Things to Know
When I was a student, taking notes was one of my favorite parts of school—I loved writing everything down, organizing information, even color-coding with different color pens. So when I first became a teacher, and another colleague first showed me a set of fill-in-the-blank guided notes, my honest reaction (which I kept to myself) was that it was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. These are high school students, fill-in-the-blank? I remember thinking. Why can’t students just take notes? In my first few weeks of teaching, I built a new slide presentation every night for the next day’s… Read more.
6–9 minutes -
Assumptions about Students’ Prior Knowledge
My first week as a high school teacher began with three days of first-year beginning teacher (BT) boot camp, led by the district curriculum coordinator and her team. The icebreaker was simple: introduce yourself, say what you’d be teaching, and rate your comfort level with the content. A young woman in her mid-twenties was eager to go first. She announced that she was super excited to be teaching World History — it had been her favorite subject since grade school, and she’d even minored in History in college. However, it bothered her immensely that the World History curriculum didn’t begin… Read more.
4–7 minutes