This past month, I have learned that inspiration for teaching and life can come from many places: a photograph of a curled up Dachshund, a simple quote from Shakespeare, a 2nd grader’s writing assessment, or an educational email with the subject line: Are we preparing students to be chefs or cooks? This email came from … Continue reading The Sure Thing: Be a Chef
Tag: creative thinking
Add. Change. Remove.
Add. Change. Remove. This is a strategy we use in our 2nd grade writing workshop to explain the revision process. In the lesson, which I think originally was an idea from a Six Traits lesson, the students create with Play-Doh and then at various intervals are asked to add something to their creation.
Being Present to Joy
My colleagues worry about not having time enough to teach. They have so much content they need and want to cover. As a curriculum coordinator, I create tons of documents - benchmarks, scope & sequences, lists of standards by grade level to make sure we don't miss teaching one single skill or strategy. This is … Continue reading Being Present to Joy
A Time for Apples
I don't know whether it's because my mom was a teacher or because I became a teacher and have been doing this for the last forty years... but I LOVE apples. I keep an apple collection: marble, ceramic, crystal, brass - all kinds of apples to remind me that school has just started and like … Continue reading A Time for Apples
A New Way of Seeing
I am an educator, writer, and artist-photographer. All those disciplines hold at their core visualization. For the educator and student, it is the ability to visualize the possibilities and set a course to invent and re-invent oneself. For the writer, it is to find a way to communicate ones’ visions to others. And for the … Continue reading A New Way of Seeing
For the Love of Words
Some words feel wonderful in your mouth: benevolent, pashmina, Constantinople. They roll right off one’s tongue and into one’s imagination. Words hold meaning and are the building blocks of all human thought. When I began teaching thirty-eight years ago, I marveled at my preschool students’ curiosity about words and how they could understand and use … Continue reading For the Love of Words
Word Dancer: Literature, the Arts, & Education 