Welcome to "I Want to Convince You"

"I Want to Convince You" is a blog for tired teachers; young and old, experienced and inexperienced, homeschool and traditional school teachers.

Non-teacher observers do not often understand that just ONE year of tumult in the public or private classroom can bring with it a slew of legislative, administrative and instructional changes according to the needs of a constantly evolving student population. We (the teachers) are so bombarded by this and that new strategy, program, recommendation, that the innovation in us (which powers on the light bulb you see over students' heads in the graphics and cartoons) just burns out.

We (the teachers) hardly ever have time to sit down and enjoy full-length texts on the latest research in our field, and we are often annoyed by after-school training sessions that cancel tutoring appointments, parent meetings or wind-down times we set to keep us sane in such a demanding profession.

Thus, I have created this blog as a service to all of us. I have challenged myself to plant my roots further into the soils of education that I love most, the instructional elements that will provide remedial opportunities for students who perform "below standard" or "below grade level."

Rest assured, if you are a teacher of honor students, advanced placement courses or college classes, you can gain some insight here as well. I'm just going to tell you what I believe you might enjoy about certain research-based strategies, and it won't take me two hours to do it. Then, you feel free to try out some of these strategies or continue doing what you were doing all along.

Just give me five or six minutes of your time. Give me the opportunity to attempt to convince you to try something that might not be so new after all. ;)