It was the summer before my second year of teaching. I remember sitting in my apartment on my secondhand maroon futon with a middle-school chapter book in my hand and a notebook in my lap. As I read each chapter, I thought about the questions that would get my students to think deeply and respond to what they were reading… Read more »
Hi friends! I am looking to the future, and I realize that this blog/site hasn’t been a place for people to connect as much as it has been a megaphone for my infrequent posts. Therefore, I have started a Facebook Page, and a Facebook Group for us to share stories, give each other support, and learn from each other. I… Read more »
School has started for the thirteenth year on the other side of the desk, and we’re off and running with Digital Citizenship, Math and Science, and building things in STEM class. Most of my work this year so far has been figuring out which standards apply to my class and how to carry those out. I’m excited to work in… Read more »
I had a teacher friend message me last night asking this: I have always been making my calendars for school in Publisher because I like to make them pretty and fun. I recently saw that Publisher is not always available in the office suites anymore. Do you know of any software (preferably free to cheap) that could be used to… Read more »
I had a fantastic idea while working with the Flipgrid Explorer Series for this year! I saw a lot of students posting short videos using iMovie & iPads to respond to the first topic, Birds in Your Neighborhood. Since we’re a Chromebook school, I wondered how we might go about doing the same thing. It will be easy with Google Slides, the… Read more »
Our STEM classroom was recently blessed with the addition of a 3D Printer. Now, we had a few small printers last year, but they gave us some trouble and haven’t been used much. Our new printer is bigger, faster, and louder. Whenever the students come into the room and they hear it running, there is always a big crowd around… Read more »
Admittedly, due to some Issues I’ve been having recently in this thing we call life, I’ve been feeling moody. There’s so many things to be positive about right now, including the release of a collaborative book! (Yikes, I’m a published author now?? Who would have thought.) I’ve let myself wallow for a long time in this space, so I have… Read more »
The countdown is getting closer to single digits! In just over two weeks I’ll be welcoming a batch of Kindergarten through 6th graders into my new STEM classroom! I’m so excited (and, admittedly, nervous) about starting in a new school, with new families, a new district, and a whole new program for the district. Because I’m me, I’ve been scouring Twitter,… Read more »
How can we change our mindset to think of failure as just another step in the process of being successful? It’s not going to happen with just a poster on the wall.
An ending, a beginning and the whirlwind in between!