Lainie Levin

Story Challenge Day 4: More Dispatches from the Classroom

It was another good day.Yes, I had a lesson plan.Yes, I had objectives for the day.Yes, we pretty much did them.And my students, as always, brought so very much more to the table. We discovered that when ideas stretch across multiple texts, we call those universal themes:-Greed stinks, gives you tunnel vision-Adults are sightless, kidsContinue reading “Story Challenge Day 4: More Dispatches from the Classroom”

Story Challenge Day 3: Teaching Detour, Told in Real Time

From time to time, folks ask what it’s like teaching a classroom full of gifted-talented children. What does a day in your room look like? This post, I think, says it all. Where it starts, what my intentions are, and where it goes – all of it – puts what I do in a nutshell.

Slice of Life Challenge Day 2: Once a Lovey, Always a Lovey

I’ve been teaching a while. Twenty-seven years, in fact. And when you’ve been teaching twenty-seven years, and you keep up with some of your former students, there’s something amazing that happens. You get to see them grow up. You get to see them step into their lives, into the world as adults and selves inContinue reading “Slice of Life Challenge Day 2: Once a Lovey, Always a Lovey”

Slice of Life March Writing Challenge, Day 1

I ask my kids to write all the time. Sometimes they feel like it, sometimes, they don’t. But they show up for me, for themselves, for the classmates – every time.

So this March, my daily writing practice is dedicated to my students, who are some of the best sports I know.

Slice of Life Tuesday: On Power

Been thinking lately about power structures, and how they are often perceived as a zero-sum game. I’m not sure I’m convinced. So today, I let my Flair pens speak for themselves…

Slice of Life Tuesday: Class Guest

Yes. My kids are learning about the Middle Ages. And trying their hands at Old English, and Beowulf, and Middle English, and Canterbury tales (just the Knight’s tale, friends!), and Shakespeare, and Noah Webster. All of it. Because kids deserve to wrestle with big ideas and difficult stuff…

Slice of Life Tuesday: Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda

This slice of life could have been about the daily wrestling match that gets fought at five a.m. between my alarm and my brain, or about the importance of having workout buddies who look out for me, who expect so much from me, who inspire me to do better, or about the way time. Slows.Continue reading “Slice of Life Tuesday: Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda”

Slice of Life Tuesday: Assigned Writing

Today, I shared a “grab bag” of writing ideas with my students. It’s a folder they can click on in their Schoology app in case they’re stuck for something to write on. I selected one of the topics at random to demonstrate how to set up a new document, and I figure it’s a fun one to dive into for today!

Slice of Life Tuesday: Writing “Process”

I spent…a LOT of my time writing this weekend.

Between one purpose and another, I probably spent 8-10 hours with my fingers on these keys. All of it was good, and writing in that great a volume has me wondering if I should be expecting more of myself or not. That line between grace and tough love is a fine one, my friends…

Slice of Life Tuesday: Expanding (Blowing!) Our Minds

Yesterday, in my third-grade class, our lesson went completely, totally, 100% around the corner and off the tracks. Ask me if I regret it.