Seeking Guest Bloggers for Fall 2019

Have a great idea for a blog post for teachers? I'd love to hear from you. Guest blogging for Christian Teacher, Public School may be a great way to get your idea out there and build community with other teachers. Here's what we'd most like to see:

• Posts that discuss the everyday life of teachers who hold to the Christian faith while teaching in the public school. This could be in the form of a journal, a how-to, or any structure that works for you.

• Technology, art, music, and other special focus areas of education. Give us your takeaways from a recent conference, a book you loved, or a class you took. Inspire fellow teachers to hone their craft and be the best they can be.

• Devotionals for teachers. How has God been working in your life recently? What Bible passages has He laid on your heart to share with other teachers? Share ideas for how to pray for students.

• Posts that show us first-hand how you or an interviewee build rapport with students and parents.

• Posts that help teachers understand IEPs, 504s, and how to both relate to special needs students and help them grow academically and emotionally.

• Book reviews of recently-published books for teachers. You could also do a roundup of readalouds, multicultural novels for middle grade readers, or other books for the classroom library. Have you written a book for teachers? We'd like to know.

• Posts that show us first-hand how you or an interviewee teach a lesson, build a unit, organize a field trip, rock a fundraiser, or other practical how-to article.

• Posts that round up resources for Christian teachers in public schools, especially freebies, helpful organizations, teacher hacks, online tools, and basically anything practical for daily teacher life.

If you write about students, be sure to change names and any identifying information. Follow FERPA! And get any necessary permissions from people you interview or photograph.

Some guest blog submissions may be declined, usually because they're not quite what I'm looking for. Follow the above bullet points, and you'll be more likely to have your idea accepted for publication. Feel free to submit more than one idea!

There's no pay for guest blogging with me, but I'll generate buzz through Instagram @amyballardwriter and here on my blog. You'll spread the word to your friends, and our combined readership will get your ideas out there to a wide network of teachers. I hope you'll consider sharing your awesome-teacher insight on Christian Teacher, Public School this year.

All the best,

Unpacking Idaho's 2017 Federal Programs Conference

 It's great to be back from the 2017 Federal Programs Conference in Boise! Now to unpack what I've learned. . . .

First some highlights for those of you who wonder what it's like to go to a conference like this.

• Keynote speakers Charlotte Danielson, Luis Cruz, Diane Staehr Fenner, and of course rapper MK Asante brought inspiring messages encouraging us to be "merchants of hope," to remember that "If you make an observation, you have an obligation," and to keep doing the work that makes such a difference in the lives of our neediest students. 

Amy with the great Charlotte Danielson

• Breakout sessions deepened our understanding of topics under the Federal Progams umbrella (and at this conference, special education). I learned about reaching English Learners, using multicultural literature for inclusion, leveraging score changes in WIDA Access 2.0, apps that support student accessibility, and Socratic Discussions with my friends Wendi and Kim from the Idaho Coaching Network.

• I presented Choose Your Own Adventure: Writing and Publishing Narratives Using Digital Technology to a great bunch of teachers. Want the slideshow? It's yours! Go to https://goo.gl/c49wS5. The hostess at my session gave me a goody bag with The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore inside. Can't wait to read it!

Amy's presenter badge

• I got to catch up with some of the great folks from CSI who put on the P20 Educator Conference last summer. They're gearing up for this July, and I'll be presenting Choose Your Own Adventure and Faith and the Public School Teacher there again this year.

• Came home loaded up with freebies like animal-photo posters from Discovery Education, a coloring book for my daughter, and oodles of books from Stan Steiner's session, "What's New in Multicultural Children's Literature." More on that session another time!

Multicultural literature

• I got to explore Boise and meet new people. Networking is a huge part of why we go to conferences at all, and I try to take advantage of the chance to get help with issues I'm facing in the classroom, school, or in my district as a whole. (Okay, in my small community, the school and the district are one and the same. But you get what I'm saying).

View from the parking garage near the Boise Centre

What I'd like to see at next year's conference? A session called "Federal Programs 101." After all, some of us (me) are newbies to Fed Programs, and we need to know how to prepare for an audit, manage input from staff members, and make sure our school is doing the best it can to meet the needs of all learners.


More from the conference soon, but in the meantime, what do you think new Federal Programs Directors need to know about their job? Leave comments below! We newbies thank you!

Further Reading:
From eSchool News: 5 technologies to avoid in the classroom-and what to use instead
What Happened When I Interviewed Hip-Hop Artist MK Asante (And a Truck With a Confederate Flag Drove By)
From Dayspring.com: What's in Your Easter Basket?

Idaho Coaching Network Offers Resource-Filled Blog For Idaho Teachers

This week brings a wider audience to my recent blog post, "Shoveling a Path Through the Snowdrifts for New Teachers." I'm privileged to share my thoughts on teachers as mentors on the Idaho Coaching Network blog. The blog is a helpful resource for Idaho teachers, especially in the ELA content area.

Christian Teacher, Public School also offers links to helpful resources for Idaho teachers. Check out the Idaho tab at the top of this page. Know of other Idaho education resources? Please share in the comments!