Foreword Recently, I have been thinking about my role as a teacher. Inside and outside the classroom, I sometimes have doubts about what I should do and what I should not do. Well, I have always wanted to be a good teacher. I have had so many good teachers that I feel it would be…
Category: 2 Rules The Magazine
Managing Student Behavior: A Class Under Control
Learning vs. Classroom Management Teaching elementary school involves managing student behavior. In fact, managing the kids is most of the job. You can plan the best, most engaging lessons in the world, have all your materials ready, and then bomb the actual lesson if you can’t quiet the class down, and keep the class clownery…
The Negativity of Reviewers Stops with Me
“Don’t let the words get to you”, I said to myself, reluctantly flipping open the reviewers’ comments one more time after letting them settle for months. It my first grant proposal as research staff at my university. What’s unpleasant always comes first, raising a big flag and waving it at you. You can feel the…
The Covid Classroom: A Love Story
My frustration with Covid is not health-related. For some reason, even with the initial panicking, supermarket robbing, emergency online teaching, I was relatively calm, sometimes even amused and excited, because none of this had ever happened before in my life. And to stay at home and to take care of the girls and to stockpile…
An Archaic Concept Of Me
Editor’s note: Welcome to our first serial! John will be making these “deliveries” to us once a month on a Thursday. The Opening: I was young; I was anxious; I was bound to an archaic concept of me. She smoothed my mind and body with her sunny day thoughts and yoga softened hands. I agreed…
Eric, the Teacher & Researcher: A Horror Story
My name is Eric, a teacher and a husband. In the daytime, I teach and research. In the night-time, I rest and cook, and sometimes run and play music. Lately, I do research, teaching preps, proposals and plans. Cooking and running in the evening. Seven days a week. I don’t mean to scare you, but…
Choosing Love
In the maelstromI always hear a voice asking“Will you close yourself to love?When the pain is too much will you let it open you?Or will you turn your face away and chooseThe tiny withering of the heartThat can someday lead to full soul death?” Should I reject a love that is imperfect?Or should I embrace…
Girls*
Girl No. 1 Did you brush your teeth? Did you put cream on? Did you wash your face before you put cream on? I told you to have the pro-bio before having breakfast. Now what about water? Drink water before food. How many times have I told you that having a bottle of water is…
Can’t I Leave you all Alone for a Second?
Let me set the scene: It’s independent reading time in my second grade classroom. Everyone is busy reading a physical or virtual book of their choice. No one needs water, the bathroom, or any of a million other things they usually need me for. If I warn them I’m going, then suddenly they are hyper-aware…
2 Rules, The Magazine (An Introduction)
You may be thinking about submitting a piece of writing to this magazine. You may be wondering what the guidelines for submission are. The main one is: let’s talk. Let me know you want to submit a piece. Show it to me. If it’s too long we’ll publish it in installments. If it’s a bit…