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.
Tag: literacy
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I was and I am devastated by the results of yesterday’s election. It appears that a person who to me represents all that we, as humans, should avoid is the selection to lead the United States. In case you missed it, I am including this clip from Jon Stewart. I think there is a lot…
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After teaching nearly 30 years, I must admit I am totally confused by the debate over reading instruction. Maybe I am missing something? Balanced Literacy vs. Scientific Methods? Over the last 10 years of my long career, I observed that whenever the a specific reading program was dictated, success, often defined by scores on standardized…
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The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance. ALAN WATTS Alan Watts Quotes. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved January 5, 2024, from BrainyQuote.com Web site: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/alan_watts_386511 This quotation has a particular resonating truth for me. No longer able to make sense of the changes in our world politics,…
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There has been a great deal of attention and buzz about former VP and current Presidential candidate Joe Biden’s rambling response to the education question posed at the end of last night’s debate. For the uninitiated, a record player is what we old-farts used for streaming music in our youth. Beyond the Friday morning commentary…
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I’m really excited about this project! When the American Federation of Teachers-Massachusetts (AFT-MA), our local union’s state affiliate, approached our local union a year ago about hosting a First Book/AFT Books on Wheels event, we were intrigued, but the timing was just not right. We may have had to put the project on a back…
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Kids can latch on to words in the most incredible ways. And second language learners really keep a teacher thinking. As an English speaker, I give almost no thought to words and phrases we use every day that have multiple – and often unrelated connections – to meaning. As a teacher of ELLs, however, that…
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I’m afraid we didn’t get very far in “diving deeper” into today’s poetry selection. Mostly, today was a lesson in multiple meanings of words. By that, I mean, a word that meant one thing in the mid- to late-1800s (when this poem was written) and the colloquially accepted meanings that kids hear today. First of…
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This is a tumultuous time to be a teacher – many, many new mandates are arriving this year making for a lot of teacher discomfort as we try to make sense of things. My own personality is that I am an early adopter – not always a good thing I’m sure, but I do tend…
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I have long gotten past being the “sage on the stage”. If educational gurus hadn’t already convinced me that students learn best from peers and self-exploration – constructing the meaning of something themselves from experience – anecdotal evidence from the classroom would have. This week I arranged with our school’s Literacy specialist/coach, Pat Sweeney, to…
After An Educator's Journey 