After An Educator's Journey

Out of the classroom & into the universe

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about

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: August 2012

  • Daily Explore plus Four

    The start of school is looming and I am spending some time thinking about how I’d like to change-up some of our learning activities. With all the attention on the Common Core in our District, and with the commitment to Launch-Explore-Summary lesson structures, I am once again tweaking Daily Five for math. The basics of…

  • Planbook Technology

    We are a geek family. There I said it.  My husband is a former software engineer now a working photographer.  My son is a software engineer. I was an Instructional Technology Specialist (computer teacher) for 5 years. So embracing new technology is kind of fun for me. I like to see if I can break…

  • And so it goes…..

    In the first few paragraphs of her commentary, Joanna Weiss made me laugh right out loud.  In the “old days”, 32 years ago for example, we used to take snapshots of our kids and then make multiple prints to send out to all of our interested or not so interested family and friends.  I know…

  • The New Math

    It’s been a long, strange journey from where I started as a teacher to the present. I say this because I’ve just finished a month of work with some wonderfully talented third grade teachers on our District’s Common Core Math curriculum maps. When I think back on the way I used to teach, I’m reminded…

  • August

    Some people watch for the Back-to-School advertisements to gauge how near we are to the end of summer break. I use crickets. When I can hear the crickets, I know it’s time to give some extra attention to planning for the Fall.  It’s a bittersweet sound for me; the mornings where I can linger over…