After An Educator's Journey

Out of the classroom & into the universe

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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 management

  • Another Look at the Daily Five and Math

    How does that saying go? If you’re not green and growing, you’re rip and rotten. One of the key components of the Daily Five – teaching learners to be independent – is not only appealing, but imperative. After some false starts last year (based on my reading of both the D5 and Cafe books), I attended…

  • Classroom Reorg: Making Our Space Less Cluttered

    I’ve been spending a bit of time thinking about what the physical atmosphere and arrangement of the classroom projects.  I am a packrat. There, I’ve said it. I saved egg cartons – must have had to toss about 50 of them when we moved 16 years ago – knowing in my teacher brain that I…

  • D5 and Barometer Kids

    One of the most powerful and admirable things about Gail and Joan – the Sisters – is how they openly share their teaching life.  They don’t preach that they have all the answers, and anyone who has spent more than a nanosecond in a classroom knows that absolutely no one can have all the answers.…

  • Outside of the Box

    We will have a lot of changes this coming Fall. Some are more global: a new administrator, a new superintendent, new Core Curriculum. On a more local level, my grade level has made a decision to locate the Inclusion classrooms side-by-side, so next year I will be a SPED Inclusion room again. And there some…

  • Classroom Design

    Boy do I ever need to redesign my classroom space.  What I have is workable, but there’s much more to be done.  What would my dream space look like? Here are some things I’m mulling over for next school year: 1. Removing the big old TV on the gigantic (and wobbly) stand.  Yes, I do…

  • Cleaning Out

    This June, with just 3 years  — or maybe 4 if the stock market takes a nose dive — left of my teaching career, I’ve started the process of streamlining.  It seems like a good idea. I certainly don’t have an delusions that all that stuff I’ve been saving “just in case” is going to…

  • Uplifting the Soul

    This time of year, the weeks before “real” spring arrives, challenges me.  The winter debris, the salt and sand, litter, the ugliness of a still brown landscape make me anxious for a spring that arrives according to its own timetable. So yesterday, in an attempt to shake out of the depression that has been enveloping…

  • Let the testing games begin

    I have a new definition for “March Madness” and it has nothing to do with playing a sport. This March, we have the following on our docket: MELA-O (ELL assessment), MEPA (ELL written assessment), District Math Benchmark, MCAS Reading, and report cards. And of course there are always assessments for RTI/TAT tracking and reading progress…

  • The Elephant in the Classroom

    Things are not always dire or bleak, but looking for a positive after yesterday’s Parent Teacher conferences is fairly challenging. I have 22 students. Ten parents made appointments for a conference period yesterday; the conferences were held between 3 and 5 pm as an alternative to the 6 to 8 pm conferences held in the…

  • Letting Go

    One of my New Year’s Resolutions – the list is really long! – is to try not to be such a control freak about what we do in the classroom. I’m letting go of the idea that I need to be at school before 6:30 am (our school begins at 8:30) and that I can’t…