2013. Just when it was getting interesting—with a surprise Beyonce album, an actual bipartisan budget deal in Washington, DC, and a Boston Red Sox World Series celebration duck boat parade—it’s time to turn the calendar over to 2014.* Here’s a look back at some of the highlights from The Mailbox in 2013. The Mailbox turned…
Ideas
Please Take the Quiz
More pay for public school teachers. Universal preschool. Increase the curriculum focus on STEM learning. Smaller class sizes. Longer school days. Or an option of your own description. Last week I assigned The Mailbox Blog readers a simple, one-question quiz. Which idea would do the most to improve the quality of public education in America…
Brrrr!
Have you gone to see Disney’s Frozen at the movie theater? I went last night with a friend of mine. We managed to get to the 5:05 pm showing, and we were the only ones there. So yes, we talked too loudly, laughed in an unladylike manner, and attempted to sing along with the characters….
Pop Quiz #1210
As you might guess, I am not employed solely to write a blog. That means that I don’t necessarily have all the time in the world to follow each development, large and small, in the great big world of education. Still, I try to keep my eye on things, write about what I know, and…
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…
Do You Follow?
We never really get following directions, do we? Let’s admit it. Even as adults, we’re about as good at following directions as we were when we were children. There really hasn’t been much improvement. You there at your desk at Groveland Elementary in Minnetonka, you can protest as loudly as you want that I am…
Celebrating the Classics
On The Mailbox Facebook page, we often note significant anniversaries, birthdays, and historical dates that have a connection to education, specifically elementary and early-childhood classrooms. Recently, we noted the birthday of André Cassagnes, the Frenchman who created the Etch A Sketch; Robert McCloskey, the author of “Make Way for Ducklings”; and Virginia Lee Burton, author…
Good Evening, Mr. and Mrs. America
If there’s anything that can be a slog, it’s that wonderful day when teachers and parents enjoy meeting each other one-on-one. I’m talking about parent-teacher conferences, of course, that special time when you get to see fully grown adults balance themselves on your students’ tiny chairs But while the parents struggle to maintain their balance…
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…