Personal Facebook friends of mine know that, from time to time, I post links, blogs and overall feelings about the teaching profession in addition to the usual, daily things like, “Alaina Adams is eating Frosted Flakes right now.” On September
Read MoreMy Reverse Ark
Do you have any elephants or gorillas in your ark? You might want to consider letting them out.
They’re stinking up the place.
You Want to See Me Do What?!
Some days, I feel like I have a lot in common with Justin Bieber. There are always thousands of people who want to watch me perform at my job. Well, maybe not thousands but sometimes it seems that there are too
Read More
Long Overdue
Here’s to the best of the best: talent that we don’t deserve, but that our children do.
Read More
Teaching: Should It Really Be Like Selling Christmas Trees?
Teaching, learning, and leading, is apparently a part-time job. And, to me, it says a lot about what we value.
Read More
Duck on a Bike
As the year comes to a close I begin to inventory and pack curriculum and materials away for the summer. During the school year, I have crates of books from when I was in the classroom out for teachers
Read MoreNot On The Test
Yes, it is that time of the year again – Standardized State Testing. Oh my, everything that we have taught all year must be regurgitated in six tests over the course of three days. Unless you are in one of
Read MoreYou’ve Been Served
I've been serving my teachers quite a bit, lately. For the past few weeks I've had to publish several versions of potential and varied staffing assignments and share a whole host of ominous news about the looming funding crisis for
Read MoreA Hidden Curriculum
We may not be able to control the mental health care industry or the laws surrounding the purchase of guns in our state, but we can control the ways we create safety in our schools, with our own small gestures, each day with our kids.
Read MoreSo Few Students; So Much Time
Every single student, all 190 of them, have a 30-minute long, midyear conference to which they invite parents, guardians, peers, teachers, and other staff members. They share work from their portfolios, talk about their accomplishments and struggles, reflect on their growth in the Habits of Heart and Mind, and set goals for the short and long term. The advisor facilitates each conference, but the student is truly in the driver’s seat. It’s not strictly a time to show off, although that happens sometimes. The roundtable conference is a time for honest reflection and hard conversations too.
Read More