Author: Kale Fowler
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Teacher Pay Cut by Inflation and Districts Unwilling to Pay
In the 1970s, the average American teacher wage was a mere $8,626. Does that surprise you? It astounded me! Teachers back then were compensated enough to not only live, but enough to support a family on one income. For decades, teacher pay increased alongside inflation. However, in recent years, inflation has gotten away from us…
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Wait, What was I Planning To Do Again?
You’re the teacher. You’re helping students, you’re teaching the content, and then an idea strikes you for a brilliant follow-up assignment. But you can’t put it together now–you’re in the middle of your lesson! Later, when you sit down to plan, all that inspiration vanishes. And now you’re wishing you had put it on a…
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100 Question Physical & Life Sciences Review For Canvas: The Semester-End Question Bank That Saves You Hours
End-of-semester time crunch is real. Youâve covered the scientific method, cells, ecosystems, mitosis, meiosis, and all the basics, but now you need a solid review for your physical/life science quiz that doesnât require a ton of time to compile. You want something comprehensive, easy, and works seamlessly with the LMS platforms your school uses, like…
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Example Opinion Essay with Breakdown: Helping Students Finally âGetâ the Flow of a 5-Paragraph Essay
Iâve lost count of how many times Iâve seen students turn in opinion essays that feel like a jumbled list of thoughts instead of a clear, flowing argument. They meet the paragraph length requirement, but the ideas donât flow right. The introduction doesnât lead anywhere, reasons wander off, and the conclusion just⌠doesn’t exist. It…
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Japanese Grammar (BunpĹ) Cheat Sheet: The Quick Reference My Students (and I) Actually Use
Iâve been offering Japanese lessons through StrainFamCo tutoring for a while now, and if there’s one thing I’m sure on, it’s that Japanese grammar is overwhelming at first. Particles after every word, verb conjugations, counters that change based on the objects youâre counting⌠itâs a lot! Even as someone whoâs studied and taught it, I…
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Spelling the Same Words Over and Over for Students? Hereâs a Simple Fix That Actually Works
I remember my first year teaching in the classroom like it was yesterday. My class would be in the middle of a writing project, and I’d be trying to help one student. Three others would come up to my desk: âHow do you spell âbeautifulâ?â âWhat about âwaterâ?â âMrs. Strain, is it âf-r-e-i-n-dâ or âf-r-i-e-n-dâ?â…
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The Effects of Social Media on Young Minds
In our day and age, how can we protect the ones we love most from the negative impact of social media?
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The Information Age Is Being Actively Silenced, but Itâs Not What You Think
I remember thinking as a child that if everyone had access to all the important information, the world would naturally become a better place because people would just know better. We would have a full world history to look back on. As an entire planet of intelligent people, we would learn from the tragedies of…
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Honestly, Everything
What skill would you like to learn? When thereâs a skill I want to learn, I like to tackle it head-on. It is not hard to start learning a new skill. Keeping up with the learning and not settling for the first plateau is a real challenge, though.
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Primary Sources: How Can Primary Sources Clear Up Misunderstandings?
If youâve ever played the game of telephone, you know that when a message gets passed along, it tends to get changed. The reliability of the message gets weaker with each time someone else relays the information. But what if every person heard it straight from the source? Primary sources are the way to go…