After An Educator's Journey

Out of the classroom & into the universe

recent posts

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.

Category: Classroom organization

I was unprepared for my first ever teaching job in 1974…. why didn’t those children sit in rows with their hands folded waited for the next drop of wisdom from my brain?

Here’s how things have evolved over the last 20+ years. Maybe what I’ve learned can help you.

  • Finding Databases for Leveling Books

    Recording titles and determining genre is a piece of cake next to leveling books, at least that’s what I think.  Last week I generated about 10 pages of titles — all of which need to be leveled.  As my good friend Mickie pointed out — it is a massive amount of work. My current strategy…

  • Labeling, A Decision

    So many interesting ideas for categorizing books! I have, however, come to a decision about how to categorize the literature in 207’s classroom library.  An important component of Third Grade Literacy is exposure to different genres.  For me, I need to know that after giving a book talk or exposing children to a particular genre,…

  • Beginnings

    What is that expression?…. No good deed goes unpunished.  This morning — March 9, 2009 — I had intended to arrive a bit early in order to start taking stock of the classroom books.  Full of energy and fresh off of a beautiful spring weekend (temperatures in the 60s), I was committed to doing a…

  • Measure Twice, Cut Once….

    Thinking about how to organize books for students and figuring out the best way for your classroom is quite a challenge.  Many people are pretty adamant about what should and shouldn’t be done; it makes my head spin sometimes. I’ve been reading a couple of interesting websites about how other teachers have decided to organize…

  • In The Beginning…..

    I have no clue as to how things got so chaotic. Well, that’s not entirely true…. I think my organizational systems are so complex that the average 9 year-old might just have a tad bit of difficulty deciphering just what that organization is. Here is the “ugly”: I have 2 main book areas for the…

  • Why?

    So, I am getting close(r) to the end of my teaching career — I’m old enough to be looking wistfully as my colleagues begin to retire, but not ready to admit I should be quitting. I was looking around at the disheveled mess in my room – especially the book libraries – and began thinking…