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: classroom management
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When I first began teaching elementary school, the only “independent” books kids had were the books they checked out of the library. And maybe a borrowed read-aloud left of the chalk (!) ledge. Can you imagine how boring that must have been? Morphing to Reading Workshops and Daily Five gave our students opportunities to self-select…
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A former colleague and new-to-grade teacher recently asked if I’d share my plan book with her. I was, of course, flattered by that request and, since planbook.edu hadn’t yet disabled my account (retirement = less out-of-pocket spending), I was happy to send her a PDF of my old book. With footnotes. Why? Well, I realized…
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The Daily Five Tip of the Week had a wonderful cover story this week. In it, Lori Sabo writes about the lasting impact Joan Moser had on a former first grader, recent high school graduate. In the end, the former student describes her current self through the books she loves. Beyond the well-deserved thanks that Joan…
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Educational leaders could take a page from one of the world’s leaders in the automotive industry. Lately, educational leadership types keep trying to model education after industry. One of the problems with that idea is that some aspects of successful companies seems to be conveniently forgotten. For whatever reason, leaders at national and state, and…
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I’ve been privileged to teach in a school that embraced the tenets of Responsive Classroom. If you’ve never been exposed to this program, explore this link. There is a calm sense of purposefulness in Responsive Classroom schools; it begins right from the first days of school when students are explicitly taught expectations for their own…
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Linda Richman was right. Throw out an open question and get the talk going. In our fourth grade classroom we’ve taken accountable talk to another level. We use many of the prompts that programs like Making Meaning explicitly teach, so outside of insisting on speaking patterns that first use and then play off of these stems,…
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I got a new student a week ago. One with many behavioral and social and emotional issues. To be honest, reading his IEP gave me a headache. And a heartache. He was placed in my classroom because there was a rumor that he had an IEP, and I am one of two inclusion classrooms at our…
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I often hear what I hope are compliments when visitors walk into my classroom, and I am able to attend to this new intermission in our day’s work. It wasn’t always this way of course. Kids are kids. Their natural inclination is that the moment teacher is distracted it will seem like a golden opportunity to do “something else”. So,…
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Tuesday was our first day of school with the kids. Unlike last year, I have not looped with these students. This year, everything starts at the beginning. And that is most definitely an overwhelming prospect when we teachers begin to think about what routines need to be taught. When I prepare for those first days,…
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When I first started teaching, I changed bulletin boards monthly – always with, what I perceived was a “cute” theme. Laminated cutouts, tracings from an overhead projector…. I diligently changed the boards in my classroom to reflect seasons and my own idea of what would make the classroom seem cute or homey. Oh boy, have…
After An Educator's Journey 