This school year has, predictably, been a time of extreme effort on my part. I rarely have time to just sit and enjoy fun things, when I do sit I am usually working on a small present or reading the news. I feel inadequate most days, knowing that there are so many more strategies I […]
Category: Education Professional
Going Back to School
As adults, we often forget what it is like to have regular opportunities to start anew. We become used to having made enough mistakes that from here on out we can reliably predict what will happen as a result of our actions or inaction. And so, we float along secure in the knowledge that we […]
New Beginnings
Well, this past month has been a series of ups and downs. Losing a friend to cancer, doing poorly at several interviews (including one I really had my heart set on), and dealing with a series of allergy-induced migraines made it hard to get much done. So add guilt to the list of negatives… But […]
A full week teaching!
I am still having pretty much the time of my life with the 7th and 8th graders I get to work with. There are plenty of things that are confusing, but I have so much support that I only have to ask a question (or if I have to fix things retroactively) and I get […]
RADIANT HEAT!!!
This was today’s “reveal” — Moving up the driveway: (Murphy is Mother’s dog!)
Micro-Literature, revisited
I needed a holding place for the thinking I am doing for an interview tomorrow. Did I mention I have a job interview? Exciting stuff! I chose to go with an old stand-by lesson, the same one in fact that spurred me into action 5 years ago. The one that convinced me middle schoolers were […]
Techdate: crosspost from LiveJournal
This is a crosspost from the online journal I keep mostly for technology-related posts. However, this is also about teaching, and perhaps explains (along with daily grading of papers, lesson-planning, meetings and tracking down experienced teachers to bounce ideas off…) why I have been posting irregularly and rather poorly the last two months. I owe […]
Three weeks in…
I have just finished planning for the fourth week of my tenure in 7th grade. I had a series of very long, difficult days in the past two weeks. Conferences with parents and students who are at risk of not being able to go on to 8th grade. Learning a little bit more about how […]
What makes a successful student
I am working through how to articulate good learning and study habits for my students. Here is a simple list of DISPOSITIONS that I have come up with so far — do you have any you would add? Risk taking — often more is learned in figuring out what doesn’t work than in getting everything […]
Into the new year, and…
BANG! Â I started off the new year with both feet into the deep end… I spent the first “back to school” day (January 2) recovering from the vacation and trying to get my substituting materials in order. Â Then I subbed the next two days. Â For a middle school class, the first day back after vacation […]