Snippets of surreptitious conversational Spanish dart around the classroom amid scattered outbursts of giggles. I review the color-coded highlighting of sentence parts in our newest sentence formula involving superlative adjectives, pointing to the laminated neon cards magneted to the
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Did you know it’s Geography Awareness Week (November 13-19)? Did I just lose your interest because when you hear “geography” you picture a dusty, outdated atlas on your classroom shelf? This is my plea for geography instruction in today’s schools.
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“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.” ~Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You’ll Go! Educators, riddle me this: How many of us actually send our personal children
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“I’d like to observe your 90-minute reading block if that works for you,” says my principal as we are setting a date for my formal observation. “Well, we’ll be using literacy skills to close read and annotate a piece of
Read MoreIn my previous two “back to schools” blogs, I focused on bringing back librarians and basic supplies such as tissue. I struggled more for the third topic, because the obvious choice seemed to be to bring back teachers! Recently the
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Many of my blogger colleagues have posted back-to-school letters to new teachers – and rightfully so given the often-cited exodus of those newer to the teaching profession. Our newbies certainly need some overt love and cheerleading as they embark on
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After teaching for sixteen years, I know teaching is both an art and a science. I practiced the art of teaching this past week leading up to winter break as I kept my students learning and focused with long-anticipated events
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As I’ve gotten into my groove as a returning rookie teacher, I’ve rediscovered the joys of finding success in the little things. When I say “little,” I mean things that measure students’ success in ways that are not analyzed as
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I hope my readers will indulge me with this one. The Beatles play on vinyl in my earliest memories, and I have always enjoyed the playfulness, surreality and yet wisdom of their lyrics. On the topic of why I continue
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For the first time in my career, I am required to turn in detailed typed daily lessons each week, and they are reviewed each week in detail by an administrator and academic coach. Catch me on a cranky day, and
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