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: Nothing in Particular
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Fans of American Idol are already on to this, but I only heard about it 2 nights ago. Four words – pants on the ground. The General is definitely the cool cat. And for CSNY fans, check out Jimmy Fallon’s cover. Waiting for Dylan to cover it. Now it’s stuck in my head.
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Have you ever stopped to consider how many idiomatic expressions are used in conversation throughout a day? While waiting for one of my walkers to be picked up, I instructed the poor soul to “keep your eyes peeled” for a brother — her pick up person. The confused and horrified expression on her face immediately…
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The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. A moment of silent, quiet reflection. Today, Veteran’s Day 2009, I am remembering. My Dad’s generation was the generation that fought World War II. We don’t know much if any of my Dad’s whole military service. Like many of his generation, it was not…
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This morning, I finished my duties for 2008-2009 by taking a qualifying exam for MELA-O administrators. I have to wonder why I bothered….. the MELA-O qualifying test requires that I determine where a LEP student’s language acquisition lands when compared to Native English speakers of the same grade level. Here’s the catch: I am certified…
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Like many teachers in urban districts, many of my students come from backgrounds that are less than idyllic. This year has been no exception and in many ways, it has been worse. Is it the economic upheaval? Is it the learned selfishness of our society? A social scientist may have answers – all I know…
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In the last week I’ve administered three district-mandated tests to my third grade students. Everyone is collecting data! There have been 2 benchmarks – one each in reading and math — and a newly mandated math unit test. We’ve administered our individualized reading assessments from Fountas/Pinnell. Having completed the MCAS barely 2 weeks earlier, my…
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Having finally completed leveling, documenting, and labeling the classroom library, this week finds me in between projects. What would life be like without a project? I don’t know because it’s never been tested! The students are on their way now using their reading bag bookmarks as a guideline for finding just right books in the…
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This week is April School Vacation Week here in Massachusetts — we celebrate Paul Revere’s ride, the Battle of Lexington and Concord, the Marathon, and a Red Sox Home Day Game all on one day. We also have a school vacation. Why is it that whenever I am on school vacation, I spend about 20%…
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This week I spent most of a “day off” in school sorting through the books that had been labeled and logged and organizing them into color coded baskets – red for fiction, green for nonfiction, blue for poetry and yellow for special collections. Using both the small nesting baskets from Really Good Stuff and the…
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Two disasters – or near disasters – this week: First, I’ve been updating the Excel database file that I copied onto my school computer (a MAC). That seems like a reasonable thing to do when adding books that got missed on the first pass through a book box. I also have been bolding the titles…
After An Educator's Journey 