A Teacher's Daze

The pic above is my first sketched version to guide students through their first paragraph.  Obviously, this is the H.O.T. part of the acronym. T.E.E. x’s 2 will follow in my next blog, that I will post within the next day or two.  “A cuppa’ tea, please?”  As teachers of English, one of the most difficult standards to teach to any student is how to write a TIMED Essay for a standardized test.  The idea I am about to share made my job teaching timed writing for the state test less of a hassle than any year, in the past!!  With 28 years of teaching behind me, as a secondary teacher, I can say I have been there and done that, and I still do not have a monopoly on the way a teacher should prepare students for writing a a timed essay on the standardized writing test.   One obvious problem is the fact that nothing remains constant in education and the focus for this particular test, often changes when an upgraded model comes along- or in some cases, a totally new model.  However, teachers