“The weekends are the hardest.” a young, new coworker friend of mine said, “I think I’ll get another dog, it’s too lonely.” I remember reading somewhere that some of the loneliest people in the world are those of the newly graduated college student, and it seemed that my young, coworker friend was no different. It made sense […]
Instruction & Curriculum
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, Featured, Instruction & Curriculum, Middle School, Social Studies
Teaching About Christopher Columbus and the Truth of History
Once again, Columbus Day has rolled around, and teachers, especially History teachers, have an opportunity to set the record straight. A great article by TER’s Mike Dunn today talks about teaching Columbus and is rich with ideas and resources. I am writing today not about how to teach it but why it is essential that we […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Reconsidering Columbus: A Day Worthy of an Alternative
For decades, students in elementary school classes have admired portraits and sang songs telling the tale of America’s hero, Christopher Columbus. In his well-documented 1492 journey, Columbus — en route to India — stumbled upon what would become the Americas; Hispaniola to be exact. The rest of his journey is…history. Somewhere in the depths of […]
Posted inElementary School, Instruction & Curriculum, Instructional Strategies, Literacy, Science
The Beauty of Science and Art
This year our district has been focusing on integrating science with ELA. This is not a new idea, but one that has been a joy to implement. We spent three days over the summer looking at our standards, resources and designing lessons for students. Focusing on keeping science alive with inquiry and hands on exploration while adding a […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, High School, Instruction & Curriculum, Instructional Strategies, Literacy, Uncategorized
Teachers Observing Teachers – A Closer Look
“How can we ask ourselves to go observe other teachers in other buildings, when we don’t even observe the teachers in our own building?” This question was recently thrown out by me at a PLC meeting where we were discussing teacher actions that we can take as part of our goal for our Professional Learning Community. When the […]
Posted inElementary School, Featured, Instruction & Curriculum, Mathematics
Getting Your Hands On Math: Multiplication
I watched my three year-old, Monkey, coloring with colored pencils this morning. He was testing out the white pencil even though it was on white paper. I knew what was going to happen and I had to resist the urge to tell him not to do it. But I bit my tongue and watched him […]
Posted inFeatured, From the Front Lines, Instruction & Curriculum
Integrating the Arts
Budget cuts have been happening for quite some time and when programs are axed, the arts are usually the first to go. We live in a time when the arts aren’t appreciated as much as they used to be. Students are not given the chance to form opinions about art, music and theatre simply because […]
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Instructional Strategies, Social Studies
Where Are You From? Connecting Students to the World
Our students often have a difficult time connecting to the big world outside their everyday lives. I had a rich and in-depth activity that I loved to do with my students to allow them the opportunity to connect themselves to a bigger world and to each other. It often resulted in comments like these: “My […]