The first computer “terminal” I sat behind was literally that—something I could sit behind. It was itself a desk. It had a built-in keyboard made of keys you had to exert real effort on. I believe they were designed to survive a nuclear catastrophe (which was a real possibility in those days, kids). The monitor,…
Common Core State Standards
Throwback Thursday
It’s Thursday. In social media circles, a major trend is to devote Thursdays to revisiting past ideas, classic photos, and more. It’s called Throwback Thursday and is often accompanied by the hashtag #tbt. In the spirit of #tbt, here are five of my favorite blog posts from 2013 that you should revisit or read for…
Happy Hand-written Halloween
It may be Halloween, but it’s time to no longer be scared of cursive. I know I have visited this topic several times before, and I know that some states have removed cursive handwriting requirements from their curricula altogether. But I come here to praise cursive handwriting, not to bury it. According to a recent…
Number Bonds
I’m not talkin’ finance, folks—I’m talking about a nifty math tool. If you’re unfamiliar with number bonds, they look like the one shown. A number bond shows a whole number and its parts. It can be used for composing and decomposing numbers, for adding, for multiplying, and more. Are number bonds a part of your…
Your Turn
I worked for a principal who was noted for saying she wished she taught in an orphanage. Her reasoning, of course, was that she easily could achieve longer school days without the occasional meddlesome parent. I suspect she may have also preferred it if all the teaching staff lived in nearby barracks, where we could…
Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
Do you see what’s just ahead? Autumn. Autumn is all about change, and it’s no coincidence that the traditional school year starts on the cusp of autumn, since there are always so many changes at the beginning of each school year too. For example, my oldest son is in middle school. This week, all 1,100…
Let’s Make a Plan
One of my favorite websites is all about pencils. I’ll let that sink in for a moment. Talk about straddling the borderlands between past and future! A website about pencils. I don’t even know what to compare it to, but it’s a regularly updated blog about pencils, notebooks, and the collision of the old and…
Gooey Gray Mud
If you had told me that walking knee-deep through the gooey gray mud of a tidal basin during a cold New England April would be one of the highlights of my high school years, I might have laughed. Right in your face, in fact. That’s if I had been paying attention. (I was not…
I Bought Myself an e-Reader
At the beginning of the summer, I bought myself an eReader. It’s a popular one from an online retail powerhouse. And it’s okay. My reasons for buying it were simple: portability and an end to space- and paper-consuming physical books. This device was going to revolutionize my reading habits (which had suffered the last few…
A Crystal Ball Question & Giveaway
It’s August 1, and for those who teach in schools with traditional academic calendars, that means… Well, I think you know what it means, and I don’t want to say much more, in case you’re trying not to think about it. But, really, what teacher ever fully disengages her brain from thinking about school, the…