Here in the south, a teeny bit of snow can throw a wrench into things. It’s not that we’re wimps or that our blood is thinner than Minnesotans—well, honestly, I can’t verify either of those things. What comes to my mind are words like inexperienced and unprepared. And really, when Mother Nature decides to shake…
Current Events
Everyone Has One!
I have one. You have one. My colleagues have them. Your colleagues have them. Your students have them too. Sometimes they are strong. Sometimes they’re not. Some folks get right in your face with theirs. Some folks sit on the fence with theirs. What’s great about this thing is there isn’t a right one and…
Quick Poll on Clean Off Your Desk Day
Welcome to Clean Off Your Desk Day 2014. In a previous life, my desk was not a very tidy area. It often had more in common with the Leaning Tower of Pisa than a so-called work surface. Yet, while it is not exactly spotless or clutter free in 2014, I’ve come a long way, baby….
Shivering in a Winter Wonderland
I don’t ever remember the school bus being a particularly warm place in the dead of a New England winter. Sure, it was better than walking, but I think we were warmed mostly by our own youthful sense of excitement about going to school or going home. Later, of course, it just wasn’t cool to…
Your Classroom Library
A day that I thought would never come finally arrived in the first half of 2013. I bought an eReader. Without disclosing the brand directly, let me just say that it comes from a huge online retailer of books (and just about everything else under the sun). And while it is more than just an…
Holiday Creep
So Thanksgiving is now nipping at the heels of Black Friday for the title of Biggest Shopping Day of the Year. What a shame. Many stores were playing holiday music to lull shoppers into a gift-buying mood when they were shopping for back-to-school, which itself now seems to begin sometime in late April. And I…
Our Address
Last week, we got it in our heads that we could be the difference. We thought we could really start the ball rolling with teachers and students and show you how easy it is to participate in the Learn the Address effort. So come on! Join us! Learn the Address (learntheaddress.org) is an invitation…
Talk to the Parents
November 18–22, 2013, is American Education Week. This blog is posting on the second day, which is Parents Day, when participating schools invite parents into the classroom to witness a typical day of learning. Of course, by now most of you have had parent-teacher conferences, open houses, curriculum nights, and various after-school activities during which…
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…
Honoring Our Veterans
I was touched by a recent news story about 13 US Marines returning home from Afghanistan on an American Airlines flight. Apparently it is the airline’s policy to upgrade service men and women in uniform to first class whenever possible. On this particular flight there were only six first-class seats available, leaving seven Marines in…