From the Teacher’s Desk is where I share the stories, thoughts, and little lessons that come from everyday life in the classroom—and outside of it. Because teaching doesn’t always stay neatly contained between the first and last bell.
It’s the unexpected classroom conversation, the activity that takes a completely different turn, the student who surprises you, or the ordinary moment that somehow stays with you. But it’s also the thinking we do on the drive home, the ideas that come to us when we aren’t looking for them, the things we notice about kids, reading, learning, and life, and the experiences outside the classroom that shape the way we show up inside it.
Sometimes an idea works beautifully. Sometimes it falls completely flat. Sometimes we change our minds, try again, or discover that the moments we never planned are the ones that teach us the most.
This is a space for all of that—the successes worth celebrating, the challenges that make me rethink things, the ideas I’m trying, the things I’m still figuring out, and the lessons I continue to learn along the way.
Because behind the strategies, standards, assessments, and lesson plans are real teachers living real lives, working with real kids, and learning right alongside them.
Real classrooms. Real life. And all the lessons we pick up along the way.
Short Story Collective 