His many pieces on this blog include one about how teachers can help students motivate themselves, and a favorite of mine, titled, “NEWS BREAK (not breaking news): Teacher asks students to grade him. One wrote: ‘I give Mr. Ferlazzo an A at being annoying.’ ”
In July, he wrote a post about the eight things that were most worrying him about the start of the 2020-21 school year during the global coronavirus pandemic. They included concerns about how he would quickly and effectively build relationships with students remotely, the mental health of his students, and concerns about the difficulty of remote learning but the lack of understanding about those difficulties by administrators and others.
This new piece about what most concerns him heading into a new calendar year appeared on one of his blogs, and he gave me permission to publish it.
Ferlazzo also recently made his annual list of what he considered the worst and best education news of the year, which you can read here.
By Larry Ferlazzo
In July, I wrote a column for The Answer Sheet headlined, “Teacher: Eight concerns about school this fall that are robbing me of sleep.”
And, boy, was I spot-on with those concerns as the fall semester unfolded.
I was able to get a decent handle on the ones I listed that were within my control, such as what to cover in the curriculum and what to jettison.
And I have developed a substantial amount of cynicism about others beyond my control, particularly those related to people who have never done remote teaching but still tell teachers how to do it. CONTINUE READING: A teacher’s deepest concerns going into 2021: students who disappeared, covid-19 myopia and six more - The Washington Post