December, 2018 - Porter Has Class

Top Five Issues Facing Education in Mississippi

Post published:December 30, 2018
Post category:Blog

No educational system is perfect. Despite great strides by the state of Mississippi to improve, the state still has a tall mountain to climb. After browsing news headlines, here are the five biggest issues facing the state in no particular order: Absenteeism Student absenteeism is growing across the nation. However, Mississippi ranks in the top 20 of states with “chronically absent students.” Unfortunately, this seems to be a problem with very few solutions thus far. Toni Kersh of the Mississippi Department of Education’s Bureau Director of Compulsory School Attendance Enforcement said, “It’s going to have to be a team approach…

Funny Teacher Story: ‘Not Enough Toilet Paper’

Post published:December 16, 2018
Post category:Stories

I wonder how many people go to work to hear about constipation and the words “I can’t get it out.” Doctors? Nurses? Maybe pharmacists? Oh, oh, don’t forget TEACHERS. Ever heard the saying, “Kids say the darndest things?” Teaching is a profession where I’m seldom surprised but there rarely is a dull moment. Thus, today begins my “Story Time” series. Story Time In the field of education, we educators tend to hear some of the funniest things or experience the strangest moments with our students. I have a student in first grade who has an extreme dry sense of humor!…

Improving Reading Comprehension: Where is the Answer?

Post published:December 9, 2018
Post category:Reviews

So, the spur to my blogging career - rereading research articles on a topic I’ve already researched inspired me to write about the research in order to better retain the information as well as hold myself accountable for what I’ve read and written. The first topic is “improving middle school reading comprehension.” Did you know that a Google search of that topic will bring you 848,000 results? Obviously, I have not read them all, but I have read many in my pursuit to improve comprehension skills in my own classroom. 4 Tips for Improving Middle School Reading Comprehension Initially, my…

A Million and One Blogs…

Post published:December 2, 2018
Post category:Blog

Who Am I? And What Am I Doing? A million and one blogs and I decide to start one… what am I thinking? Hi. I’m PorterHasClass and I have decided to jump into the fray of bloggers. The idea lingered as I began to prepare lessons to be published on TeachersPayTeachers. As I researched how best to create and advertise products, the more I learned how beneficial a blog can be in cross-promoting my TPT store. But what do I have to offer to the blogging world? What can I write that would be any more interesting than any other…