Unfortunately, I haven’t discovered a pot of gold at the end a rainbow that I can share with you. However, I do have a super-clever activity that is darn near as great as gold! The idea, submitted by a teacher, will appear in a later issue of The Mailbox magazine. But you get a sneak…
In addition to blogging, I do a lot of Facebook posts for The Mailbox. Lately, I’ve been noticing a lot of people sending me the same personal message: “Is The Mailbox Gold just for teachers, or can parents subscribe as well?” The Mailbox is perfect for parents, whether you homeschool or not! Here are my…
Today’s blog is a true tale. It’s a typical Monday morning. The kindergartener has been coaxed out of bed. Dad is helping her get ready for school, and Mom flies downstairs to throw together a quick breakfast of juice and cereal. The family dog, tail wagging, meets Mom at the bottom of the stairs. Then…
Let’s review, shall we? During the last school year, I touched on a wide range of subjects, both serious and not-so-much. On a few of them, I received many comments. On many of them, I received none. Good or bad, I think some of them are worth revisiting. And the passage of time may mean…
The debate that never ends: homework. How much is too much? Is it even necessary? Is it effective? Does it cause you too much grief? Have you ever unintentionally used it as a punishment? Does your school or district have a policy that requires you to assign homework? Of course, there are those teachers who…
If middle school students were pirates, I can only imagine the number of times I would have put down a mutiny. Not every day, of course. Heck, not even during those times when the workload became grueling and the homework became relentless. No, I think that if my students had been mutinous scallywags, they’d have…
Before the end of the school year sneaks up on you and wallops you upside the back of the head, stop right now and think about some of the lessons you’ve learned this year. If you haven’t noted the people you want to thank, the compliments you’ve wanted to give, or the ideas you’ve had…
Homework. There, I said it. It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t as painful as I thought it would be. In fact, I’m confident that I can and will say it a few more times before our rendezvous at the Upper Grades Exchange is over. Why? Because our topic today is “Homework: How Much Is Enough?”…
It’s the end of my family’s first school year in North Carolina. My oldest son starts his EOG (End-of-Grade) testing tomorrow. He has yet to show any signs of stress about it like he did when he took his first MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System) tests back in Massachusetts. In fact, when we left Massachusetts…
I love to read (almost as much as I love to write). Books, magazines, newspapers, websites, blogs, my friends’ Facebook posts—it doesn’t matter. Yet the quality and quantity of these disparate types of writing leave me with an almost inescapable feeling of disconnection. When I finally sit down on a Sunday night and slip forty pages…