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.
Category: Braindroppings
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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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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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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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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…
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Last Friday, just before we dismissed students, one of my charges folded a piece of notebook paper and slipped it into the correction basket. I discovered it this afternoon as I did my Sunday prep for the week ahead. Today was the best day ever. We had popsicals (sic) and extra reacess (sic) and I…
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If you believe everything you read about education, you would think that public schools have been taken over by slackers only interested in making a quick buck, the “generous” benefits, and extra long summers off. If you truly wish to know what really happens in a public school classroom, go visit one. Seriously. And be…
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This is a parallel story. Last year, I spent a frustrating year teaching mathematics. Frustrating because, despite what I knew to be good practice, my students’ test results were not stellar. In fact, much of the time, my class averages were below every other class on the team. In the data-driven environment in which we…
After An Educator's Journey 