Yadda yadda, haven’t posted in a long time. Course load increased, prep time decreased, musical production, mentoring a first year teacher, supervising a pre-service teacher, etc. etc. etc. BUT I just finished reading Teach Like A Pirate by Dave Burgess. Oh. My. Goodness. It’s our book for our WELS Book Club this summer. We’re discussing Part 1 of the book… Read more »
The teachers and I here are just coming off our first “real” break since Christmas. It was a delightful time for me, a whole week off (almost…still had grad school work to do), and time to visit parents, brothers, sisters, and my nephew. I missed meeting my new nephew by only a couple days! My husband and I look forward… Read more »
As if March wasn’t busy enough with presenting at the Metro Milwaukee Teachers’ Conference, I applied for Wisconsin licensure, too, and have to take the Praxis II in Middle School Content Knowledge test. D-Day is tomorrow! I hope my studying will pay off! I’m taking the computerized version, which will be something new for me. Prayers would be appreciated, thanks!
There are some days where being an innovator is really cool. There are other days where you attempt to try something new, and it fails miserably. This is one of those “fails miserably” stories. In the second quarter, my 6th grade students devoured Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. I knew this book was going to grab my readers, as it has done… Read more »
Walk with me back to 2005, when I was a novice teacher. I wrote a devotion. I’m not sure what it was for–maybe it was for my 8th graders, or maybe it was for the teacher. (I’m leaning toward the former.) I am cleaning out old files, and I found it as I was tossing things from my filing cabinet… Read more »
Hi friends! It’s been a few weeks since I blogged about the Google Education Summit at Wisconsin Lutheran College. The week went well, and my brain is still reeling from all the information we stuffed in during that week. My biggest takeaway will be using the suite of Google tools in my classroom. Right now, I’m planning to have my… Read more »
Our art project before Christmas time was one of the most non-traditional art projects I’ve done in my teaching career. (Definitely not a bad thing!) We learned a skill that has, in my opinion, declined quite rapidly in today’s society. We were sewing! First, we practiced on some scrap pieces of fabric. We threaded our needles, tied the thread, and… Read more »
In preparation for my presentation on Technology as Alternative Assessment at the Metro-Milwaukee Teachers Conference in March, I pitched my original lesson plans for the novel Freak the Mighty and decided to to something different. The summer before I started teaching, I stumbled upon this book and practically devoured it. The book is narrated by Max, a boy who has… Read more »