This is a long time coming: Started July 2021 when I realized I wanted some very specific items to keep students at their desks (covid protocols will be in place for the foreseeable future due to the age of my students). It is now November 2022. I did NONE of these tasks. Some of them […]
Category: 3rd Grade
Long month, longer year ahead
A challenge I didn’t expect during this school year is the number of students who are absent on any given day, and the students who will be absent for multiple days… We have protocols in place for when a student enters with a fever, a runny/stuffy nose, coughing, sneezing, etc. However, this is also the […]
School Closures: Mar-Jul 2020
[I wrote this in March and July, but didn’t post it. I am posting it now… as we rapidly approach the end of August. I have more reflections, but will do those in a new post!] I am up early, the first Sunday of the official closure. We thought, last Sunday, that we would at […]
School Year, First Quarter
Already we are in the last week of the first quarter. I have a wonderful group of kiddos this year – curious, energetic, and engaged. Not perfect (what class is?) but so willing to try, to try again, and to bravely keep trying even when they are clearly struggling. They are not struggling though – […]
Rules for Being Human (Cherie Carter-Scott)
I didn’t know the original author of these (nor apparently did the Washington State PTA in 2010). It is apparently Cherie Carter-Scott, according to the website elephantjournal.com. These were typed on a piece of paper in a slightly altered form by my mother in 2010. The paper has soot all over it, but I found […]
What motivates you?
As a teacher, I am constantly being told (by non-educators!) that I must “motivate” the students. What they usually mean is: make lessons entertaining. They think it should all be fun and game-like. It is similar to the now-passé concept of “learning styles” (link opens a new tab and directs to a study released in […]
Not-quite-summer vacation
It’s not-quite summer in our part of the world. My students finished their last day of the year this past Wednesday. Like all endings, it was a bittersweet day for me. I handed out their report cards, we talked about how they can keep up with all the progress they made — and how if […]
NaPoWriMo Twenty-fifth Post
25 cents in a quarter dollar 25 is a quarter of 100 pennies 25 a half of a half-dollar 25 pennies but somehow 100 divided in 4 parts is mysterious and wonderfully strange — and 100 divided in 25? Practically impossible. More NaPoWriMo
Every day something new
There is never a dull day as a teacher. I have amazing, interesting (and interested!) students this year. They are not all in the same place of course, in terms of life experiences and academic knowledge. But they are all willing to try! I have taught kids of all ages… and the willingness to try, […]
An End, and a Beginning
The summer was not “as advertised” this year. I remained ill for another few weeks, though we had a lovely visit with my grandfather in Ashland at the end of July and saw several plays (LOVED LOVED LOVED Richard II!!!). Was too exhausted, though, to try for the second silk painting session. Hoping for at […]