It is at this time of year that I am forced to formally reflect on my practice as an educator. Why do I use the word forced? It is because most educators must go through some kind of summative process in the month of May or June that shows evidence of reflection. This is […]
This Monday, May 4th, marks the beginning of another Teacher Appreciation Week. A week set aside to recognize, not only the individual hard working teacher, but the overall profession of being an educator. What makes this year’s “week of the teacher” any different than others, is the sheer amount of connected educators joining together to […]
The title of my blog post was inspired by a former colleague of mine that I do not get a chance to see very often. But when we do, our discussions always seem to revolve around how we have grown as professionals, what we know now that we didn’t know then, and our new understandings […]
If the most valuable resource we have as teachers, is each other, then why is it so difficult to understand the importance of collaboration. I have found that educators who are not open to sharing opportunities, do, in fact, have a limited point of view. When I say not open, I mean those professionals that believe […]
Wish I took more time to blog on a weekly basis. It is an ultimate goal of mine to use blogging as a way to reflect on each week. However, I typically get caught up in other things that take priority such as work, graduate studies, and most importantly, caring for my family. This […]
“Try never to be the smartest person in the room. And if you are, I suggest you invite smarter people … or find a different room.” Why does this quote by Michael Dell, founder of Dell corp, make so much sense to me? It should make perfect sense to all of us since it reminds us […]
This morning I was constructing an email to a fellow educator trying to encourage them to seek a moment of success in every day. I had observed that they had experienced a day with lots of obstacles and distractions from their main purpose. As I was typing, I realized, that even though this task was […]
This week in ELA, we have started talking about denotation and connotation. At first the students were concerned with understanding these strange new terms, but they quickly caught on to their differences. In fact, they enjoyed participating in a collaborative activity working with positive and negative connotations. As I was playing around with word sets myself, I […]
I recently viewed a Youtube video by Dean Shareski called the “Moral Imperative“. The premise of his thoughts were that teachers need to do a better job at sharing. In fact, it is a moral obligation that teachers should meet. He even goes as far as to say, “that if teaching is sharing, then if […]
As the temperature increases, the days left of school decrease…of course disproportionately. Every day marks a new count down; project completion, last day for grades, collection of books, class trip, etc. So, how are we, as teachers, supposed to leave our buildings ready to continue our practice over the summer. Many of us have summer […]