After An Educator's Journey

Out of the classroom & into the universe

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Once upon a time, I taught 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders. Now I’m retired and working on new ventures.
I taught second, third and fourth graders. Teaching was my passion and joy for 30 years. And it didn’t hurt that they called me “mom” sometimes.

Month: May 2012

  • Connections

    Today would have been my paternal grandmother’s 129th birthday; she was born in High Falls, New York on May 31, 1883.  I do not know much about my grandmother; she died in 1927 when my father was just 9 years old. Yet I sometimes feel a connection. In addition to carrying my grandmother’s name, Elizabeth,…

  • Dear Mitt…

    As a citizen of the fair Commonwealth of Massachusetts for quite a number of years – nearly 35 at this point – I feel uniquely qualified to respond to Mitt Romney’s latest education campaign speech. You see, as a public school teacher in a small urban Massachusetts school district, I wonder how Mitt can call…

  • Raising Rigor in Readers’ Notebooks

    I used to look with envy at those spiffy Readers’ Notebooks available through a nationally known publisher.  In fact I envied them so much, I figured out how to customize a similar notebook for my students to use. And while they seemed to work pretty well, I’ve come to realize that maybe the beautifully GBC-bound…

  • Revisiting Notebooks

    Having read Notebook Know-How (Aimee Buckner) this spring; I’ve moved on the another of her books, Notebook Connections. Know-How is to writing as the Connections book is to Reading. What I am discovering though is that they both are interconnected – as they should be. At this time of year, many of us start thinking…

  • Two Great Math Resource Sites

    I haven’t been able to write much lately. We’re in the middle of state testing – again – and now getting ready for that paperwork marathon known as end-of-the-school-year. Not a big fan of paperwork. Does anyone ever really read all that stuff? So I procrastinate. Which sometimes is not as much of a time…

  • What Is It That You Do Again?

    Teaching is simultaneously instilling in a child the belief that she can accomplish anything she wants while admonishing her for producing shoddy work. As I read these words in a blogpost by Dennis Hong, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Here in less than 25 words is what we do every…