Self-Reflection
These Kids
From the desk of Alice… It’s the spring semester and even though the weather says it is still winter, many schools I work in have their eye on the end of the year. Specifically, the end of year assessments that are high stakes. This year, the assessments are a little fuzzy… we have the Common…
Read MoreJourney To Becoming a Better Math Teacher
From the desk of Carol C… I have always enjoyed teaching math. There are clear systems to use, right and wrong answers, and constants. Algorithms are wonderful. Math: teach by using the textbook exclusively, hand out worksheets that are correlated to the pages studied, and teach what a few key words found in story problems…
Read MoreTeachers Helping Themselves
From the desk of Carol C… There is so much negative press about the state of public education these days. Everywhere you turn there’s another article or speaker on the topic of the effectiveness of teachers. Talk about a demoralizer! There are lots of ways that we can combat the negative images that people have…
Read MoreA New Era
From the desk of Alice… As 2013 is arriving, I am sitting at my kitchen table on a work holiday, typing on a wireless laptop and scheduling this blog to post in the future when I am no longer at my computer. My iPhone is nearby with my calendar at my fingertips and I am…
Read MoreThe Gift of Reading
From the desk of Alice… In this first year of Common Core, I am seeing and hearing many stressed educators trying to make sense of what they need to be doing. Rest assured, one thing we need to continue to do is encourage a love of learning as we dip into this new territory in…
Read MorePitfalls and Successes
From the desk of Carol C… When teachers yearn for the days of old when children could just write, write, write creative stories, I cringe. I remember the never ending stories children wrote. The tones were so overwhelming that I couldn’t face the task of helping the kids revise their work. Plus the few times…
Read MoreWords to Abandon
From the desk of Carol C… Does this remind you of something you may have said to a teenager? Or maybe it was said to you. What brought it on? Curse words? Filthy words? Disrespectful words? It was probably a little of all of these. Well, I’m not writing today to take you back through…
Read MoreTeacher "Must Have" Books
From the desk of Carol C… Everywhere you look on the web you can find lists of books children must read or books that bookclubs must read or books that you shouldn’t die without reading or…the list goes on. What I don’t find as much is a list of books that educators must read. I…
Read MoreBelieve
From the desk of Kris… Teachers, as you get to know this year’s class I would like you to think about the power of believing in your students. We all say “I believe every child is a learner.” Do we really mean it or is it something we say because it is the ‘right thing…
Read MoreLessons Learned from Sandcastles
I have had the pleasure of vacationing over the last few weeks with my family. We have logged many hours on the sand, watching waves, and learning from each other. This morning, as I was building sandcastles with all 3 kids, I was reflecting on the lessons learned while on vacation and how they translate…
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