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: Literacy
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When you need to just shut the classroom door and do what you know is right even when it seems to fly in the face of dictates or policy – through research, through professional experience – we call that “going rogue”. Recently, I heard someone higher on the food chain that I, say that “we…
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In a past life I was a musician and a music teacher. While I lacked the talent and drive to become a professional musician, music has always been something I’ve enjoyed. In our classroom, when students need to complete a transition from one activity to the other – for example, universal breakfast clean up to…
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I’ve heard all manner of reasons for why this year is exceptionally difficult. I’m a believer in the Daily Five. It makes sense, it’s based on research – brain research AND literacy research. I saw my students grow. But I feel that it is time to give it up. The message I’ve been getting is…
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This is a tumultuous time to be a teacher – many, many new mandates are arriving this year making for a lot of teacher discomfort as we try to make sense of things. My own personality is that I am an early adopter – not always a good thing I’m sure, but I do tend…
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Although widely thought of as a math geek, at least as far as elementary math pedagogy is concerned, I am spending some time this summer researching literacy. The first book on my “must read” list happens to be Richard Allington’s What Really Matters for Struggling Readers. It will come as no surprise that many of my…
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I used to look with envy at those spiffy Readers’ Notebooks available through a nationally known publisher. In fact I envied them so much, I figured out how to customize a similar notebook for my students to use. And while they seemed to work pretty well, I’ve come to realize that maybe the beautifully GBC-bound…
After An Educator's Journey 