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.
Author: amybisson
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Most of the time when I see this phrase, it’s not a good thing. Today, however, there was an unintended consequence that fell into the plus side of the education balance sheet. In anticipation of state testing, my students have been practicing writing to a prompt for a couple of weeks. This week, we practiced…
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“I can” statements are part of our lesson planning. I craft these statements for each segment of our day, direct student attention to them before, sometimes during, and after a lesson. One of the mini lessons I planned this week was to introduce students to an FQR organizer (Facts-Questions-Response). Of course that included a link…
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A colleague and friend shared this article from the Washington Post this week. James Meredith, a hero of the Civil Rights Movement, is proposing another kind of education reform – one that is based on equity, on the idea that everyone – not just those who can parse the vagaries of charter school or private…
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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 used to love the month of January. Not the weather, the concept of the month. It was a month for new beginnings. For resetting classroom routines. For trying out something new. Not any more. Now January is a month of drudgery. Of test. After test. After test. This week, I mapped out all of…
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When I was an undergraduate, practicing piano or flute was a drudgery that I could barely tolerate. I put in what I needed to put in to get through a performance, and, given that I was an adept reader of scores, that was pretty minimal. I can recall sitting in several Form and Analysis classes…
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Since it is a vacation week, I find I have time to do a little cooking. Cooking is something I enjoy, but for 10 months of the year (and you can draw your own conclusions about which 10), I have little time to do it well. Hence the lack of posting on my other blog.…
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Just the thought of Newtown makes me weep. I cry for the babies who were taken from their families on what should have been an ordinary school Friday with the excitement of a week’s vacation looming in the future. My heart breaks for the families, for the adults who tried so valiantly to keep those…
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In another life, I was a classically trained pianist. I loved the challenge of performing Bach or Scarlatti or nearly any other Baroque composers. So yesterday when I was searching for something new to listen to – my playing days are now well behind me – I discovered a version of Couperin’s Les Barricades mysterieuses.…
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Some of my favorite episodes from Grey’s Anatomy were those in which Ellis Grey, in real life Sybil Burton, appeared. The bristly nature of that character often led viewers to think Ellis Grey, who on the surface seemed hard and unfeeling toward her daughter, Meredith, was without maternal instincts. However, in one of her final…
After An Educator's Journey 