https://www.annstiltner.com/home daily 1.0 2024-06-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ca13b25815512710c6a6f5f/c52300a0-15e7-4541-9933-853418d898f2/IMG_6135+%281%29.jpg Home https://www.annstiltner.com/contact daily 0.75 2023-08-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ca13b25815512710c6a6f5f/1590629231084-5JRWUP36TJ1W2R2W1ZZY/image-asset.jpeg Subscribe https://www.annstiltner.com/about daily 0.75 2020-06-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ca13b25815512710c6a6f5f/1592518528378-7Q2TUVHJAQ9KJ60ZZBH1/IMG_2872%2B%25281%2529.jpg About - About me… I have been a certified special education teacher since 2001 working in public high schools. I have taught resource, reading and self-contained English classes. I have also co-taught high school English, Science and Social Studies classes. In addition to my Masters in Special Education, I have a sixth year degree in Literacy. I live in Connecticut with my husband and two children. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ca13b25815512710c6a6f5f/1592519581901-6PVIEQJVS7DT0LXO9BCQ/IMG_2537.jpg About https://www.annstiltner.com/education-week-contributions daily 0.75 2025-06-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ca13b25815512710c6a6f5f/07809d91-5f7d-48cf-bcec-69ea74ff5a9c/image.jpg Latest EdWeek Blog - Classroom Q & A with Larry Ferlazzo My Latest Education Week Blog Contribution Want to Become a Better Teacher? Put Your Students Before the Content November 22, 2022 What are one to three things you would tell your first-year teacher self, and why would it/they be important to tell? ‘Don’t Try to Do It All’ When I obtained my teacher certification 20 years ago, I loved being a student and learning. I couldn’t wait to share that passion with my students. I was young, idealistic, hard-working, and eager to be the best teacher possible. But I was overwhelmed. I felt I needed to incorporate the best teaching practices into my instruction each day and I didn’t know how to do that. It was hard when all the “shoulds” I needed in my lessons seemed in conflict with each other. For example, I needed to give students choice to give them a sense of agency in the classroom, but I shouldn’t give too much choice otherwise I would be seen as a pushover and my students would think they were in control of the class. Here is the advice I would have given myself back then: Give it time - Don’t rush your growth and development as a teacher. Trust that you can and will figure out how to be the best teacher possible, but it will take more experience. Don’t overthink it, but give yourself time to live and grow into being a teacher. I made so many mistakes when I started out teaching. Now, I understand that was OK. It is part of the process of figuring out how to be a teacher. Teaching is not like solving a math problem. You cannot plug in the variables and get out exactly what you expected. Teaching is too fluid, multifaceted, and complex. It takes trial and error in the classroom to figure it all out. Time for reflection, introspection, honesty, and humility is critical to this process. Don’t try and do it all - Do what feels right for who you are. Not every strategy will work for you. Pick and choose what works for you. Tweak strategies so they feel natural and reflect who you are as a person. In the beginning, I tried to copy other teachers I admired by being a strict disciplinarian, but that did not work. Teaching that way did not feed my soul or seem authentic. I began to incorporate who I was into my teaching style, and that made a huge difference to my sense of competency. You don’t have to use every strategy in every lesson. A few best practices regularly implemented lead to effective instruction. Good strategies work because they are high impact. Teachers cannot ruin learning for their students with one bad lesson. There is no such thing as perfection in this job because there is no end point. Your skills are—and should be—constantly expanding and developing. You WILL learn not to take student behavior personally - A bad day will not always lead you to crying on your way home. You will not always see student misbehavior as a reflection of you and your skill as a teacher but as a way to learn new information about who this student is and what they are going through. You will be able to come in the next day and continue to create a positive relationship with this student. The negative reactions of parents, students, and colleagues to my choices in the classroom earlier in my career felt personal and extremely upsetting. They would cause me to question myself, triggering my self-doubt and insecurities. But, in time, these situations were not so upsetting. I acquired the experience and outlook necessary to put these events in perspective and gained the confidence to know that I can work through it. It would be important for my brand-new teacher self to hear this so I would not have spent the first years of my teaching career constantly anxious and filled with self-doubt. I would have been able to enjoy the process. And it would have saved me from many sleepless nights filled with worry and dread. 6 Small Instructional Changes Teachers Can Make for Big Results October 17, 2021 20 Ways to Support Students with Learning Differences This Year September 2, 2021 Teachers Share This Year’s Best Classroom Moments So Far November 11, 2020 Lessons for Teachers From George Floyd's Death & Black Lives Matter September 3, 2020 Dos & Don'ts of Teaching in a COVID-19 Environment August 4, 2020 Steps to Make Your Students Feel Welcome This Fall July 31, 2020 https://www.annstiltner.com/media daily 0.75 2024-07-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ca13b25815512710c6a6f5f/2ee6126a-537f-4096-af98-6dd95fd8a2fc/Screen+Shot+2022-06-25+at+9.01.26+PM.jpg Media Appearances - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ca13b25815512710c6a6f5f/1656202888444-QIV49HLFWTVQ25K333MV/unsplash-image-_YLnqtZa1NY.jpg Media Appearances https://www.annstiltner.com/latest-posts daily 0.75 2025-05-09 https://www.annstiltner.com/featured-post daily 0.75 2025-05-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57d6c55a2994cab476e9fb40/1588549806362-31G8OAKLZ692DUDF1WLJ/ca0012.jpg Featured Post https://www.annstiltner.com/recent-posts daily 0.75 2025-05-09