Each Sunday, I’m working my way through my experiences with race. I’ll share stories and memories from throughout my life. I know I’ll encounter moments of growth that I wish I could relive. I’ll also have to think back on choices that I wish I could remake. Come join me each week. I’ve been thinkingContinue reading “Sunday Sit-Down #6: Duped”
Tag Archives: elementary education
Sunday Sitdown #5: First Lesson
Mrs. Williams was a great first-grade teacher. She was kind, cheerful and honest.She always encouraged us with phrases like, “You’re cookin’ with gas!”She regaled us with stories of her little girl.She used Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies as prizes when she REALLY wanted to motivate us.Heck, she put up with ME as a first grader.Continue reading “Sunday Sitdown #5: First Lesson”
Swinging For The Fences
I’m not going to lie. This year, I have had some SPECTACULAR fails in the classroom. And I mean, not just the oh-man-this-is-tricky-how-am-I-going-to-figure-a-different-way-of-teaching-this-to-the-kids fail. That’s just an ordinary, run-of-the-mill, cost-of-doing-business, everyday type of fail. No. I’m talking about the holy-cow-this-lesson-is-crashing-and-burning-and-I-have-absolutely-no-way-of-backing-out-of-this-and-no-way-to-figure-out-in-the-moment-how-to-make-it-better-and-why-did-I-even-bother-getting-out-of-bed-today fail. I’ve thought a lot about these fails. They haunt me. In the moment, failuresContinue reading “Swinging For The Fences”
Slice of Life: Pre-Emptive Gratitude
We don’t have a snow day today, and I’m about as happy as a wet cat. Something deep within me ached for a day back at home, even if it still involved a full day of classes and meetings. The thought of getting up early, bundling up, clearing off the car, of navigating barely passableContinue reading “Slice of Life: Pre-Emptive Gratitude”
A Teacher’s Guide to Inauguration in 36 Easy Steps
or, Reflections from the Evening of January 19, 2021: How to Manage to Stay Afloat for the Next Eighteen Hours and Hold up the Walls of the World While it Watches, Waits, Breathless Pull yourself away from noise. Pet your dog. If you don’t have a dog, pretend to have a dog. Drink something warm.Continue reading “A Teacher’s Guide to Inauguration in 36 Easy Steps”
One Little Word…For Now
I’ve been a member of the Slice of Life writing community for nine months now. It’s been a source of inspiration, support and validation as I work to become braver in my writing. As time goes on, I learn more about the rituals and traditions that “slicers” have. Most recently, I learned that each NewContinue reading “One Little Word…For Now”
Offerings: Slice of Life Tuesday
Today, I bring you a bouquet of wonderfulness, plucked by my own hands from the bounty around me, gathered with care and bound with a length of twine I found in my kitchen drawer…
Slice of Life Tuesday: Missing Dreams
Today for the weekly Slice of Life challenge I knew I had a poem to write, but wanted to experiment with language and form. I came to a modified version of a triversen, a William Carlos Williams-created form consisting of six tercets: 18 lines in 6 stanzas. I’m still tweaking and working and thinking, butContinue reading “Slice of Life Tuesday: Missing Dreams”
On Finding a Writing Community
Sometimes my lessons are OK, but no great shakes. Sometimes they crash and burn – sometimes sadly and softly, others in a great fiery blaze of glory. But sometimes. Sometimes I have an idea for a lesson that’s a GREAT ONE. And it WORKS. I’ve been trying to be deliberate this year about writing workshopContinue reading “On Finding a Writing Community”
Little Folks, Big Ideas
My third graders have been delving into philosophy, of all things. Because if little minds deserve ANYTHING, it’s the ability to wrestle with BIG ideas. I’ve been using resources from The Prindle Institute to support our work. Our questions lately have focused on: what is alive? what is real? After an AMAZING webinar with myContinue reading “Little Folks, Big Ideas”
Soapbox: The Way I see Things 