More Grit (and Resilience), Please
A few posts back, I shared information and resources about grit and resilience. Here is another gem that my fabulous colleague Emily shared that was crafted with a student audience in mind. Happy viewing!
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Social Emotional Learning and the Common Core State Standards
A few posts back, I shared resources (here and here) about promoting an environment of compassion in the classroom. On this day of candied hearts and (realized or unrequited) love, Dr. Vicki Zakrzewski of Greater Good Science Center contributed to Huffington Post’s blog about the Common Core State Standards and social-emotional learning, or SEL with […]
Common Core GPS…or Your CCSS Road Dog
Are you reading this? Have you read it? Pathways to Common Core by Lucy Calkins, Mary Ehrenworth, and Christopher Lehman, can serve as scythe and gleaner for teachers and administrators as they amble or hurtle themselves down the path of CCSS implementation. Not only does the book detail what the English Language Arts standards state […]
Marching to the Beat of One’s Own Drum
I couldn’t help but watch this video a few times wearing my “teacher lens.” As I listened to Mr. Zimmer, I was awed not only by his path to musicianship, but also by his resilience. Angela Lee Duckworth of the University of Pennsylvania asserts that even though different people define “resilience” differently, all of the […]
“Math is hard, but you can do it. It’s not magic…”
Uhhhhh…I’m not really good at math. Do you “speak” math? As a student in school, I thought that I didn’t, and that I was just a “really good reader,” and that I “wasn’t as good” in math. I later realized that (bless their hearts) some of my teachers did more assigning than teaching during math, […]
The Teacher as a “Warm Demander”
Winner, winner, chicken dinner Take an indulgent moment and stroll down memory lane. Were you lucky enough to have won the teacher lottery at least once? Twice? Never? What does one win in a teacher lottery you ask? Simply put, acquiring a winning ticket in the teacher lottery means being enrolled in a class led […]
“All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m Ready for My Close-up”
Close Reading As educators across the country continue to implement the Common Core State Standards, they have undoubtedly searched for and encountered a myriad of resources that promise “silver bullet” solutions for close reading. As we teachers are wont to do, we have a knack for compartmentalizing or converting glamour-free processes into “Make and Take” […]
Getting to Know You…Getting to Know All about You…
A FREE downloadable K-12 resource is available in this post…read on! The beginning of any school year engenders a full range of emotions for teachers as well for our students. The anticipation that leads to the first day, the uncertainties of new procedures and expectations, and the promise of fresh starts can stir up emotional […]
AFT’s American Educator Summer Edition is Here!
Have you ever browsed or read an article from the American Educator journal? Throughout the years, I have found timely and engaging articles on instruction, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the 2013 Summer Edition is devoted to current EL matters. Claude Goldenberg and esteemed colleagues have penned readings that you may want to […]
Academic Language for Whom?
[google-translator] In the not too distant past, the buzz phrases “academic vocabulary” and “academic language” began tickling the tongues of classroom practitioners, and the two were often used interchangeably. Fast-forward to the era of CCSS, and we now hear conversations about academic language with teachers acknowledging the fact that academic vocabulary is but a feature […]