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One Little Word. One Big Idea.
I’d read about the concept of One Little Word on my very favorite teaching blog : Two Writing Teachers. Stacey and Ruth give credit to Ali Edwards, another blogger. The idea is this: choose a word to...
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Grow
It was weeks ago, but it stays with me: Grace brought a microscope to school. Usually we have outdoor science on Thursday, but this was Tuesday and the outdoors called us. Earlier, through the windows...
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Look Out For Wonder
I used to get in trouble for looking out the window when I was in third grade, but that was a long time ago. Now I am in a corner classroom with two walls of windows. And yes, my children look out the...
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Face First
Writing slows life down and I have been too busy living life to write about it. I’ve lived it headlong, fully engaged… and, well, face first. Mrs. Campbell took a tumble, Mrs. Campbell had a stumble,...
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Words Matter
My class and I are coming to the end of Charlotte’s Web. O Charlotte. You. You’re the one. You are the greatest heroine in Children’s Literature. I can make such a bold statement with veracity (she...
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Guarding Fragility
Whether we are conscious of it or not, we think and speak in metaphor. Metaphor is the picture language that lays track from heart to mind and back. Metaphor stirs the imagination and helps us mix...
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I’m Glad You Are Here
They were my first class. They were first graders and they taught me to notice missing teeth and new shoes. I remember my first day as their teacher. I hoped that my students would welcome me, and I...
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Is Less More?
October. September is gone, proving once again that even a month lived intentionally, day-by-day and hour by hour, will fly by. September is a methodical month. At the beginning of September, I...
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Opening Doors
“The geranium on the windowsill died but teacher you went right on…..” Albert Callum The Empire of Mali is a third grade Standard of Learning: Virginia Social Studies 3.2. Mali has a magnificent past....
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Morning Meeting and Mali
“Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.” Rilke Morning Meeting is a simple and powerful routine...
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Imagination + Inspiration = Impact
Oh, I miss posting on this blog. And I am touched that people have noticed that I’ve been absent and that they even want to know why. Well, here it is. I am on the home stretch as a candidate for...
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School: Still Working to Get a Good Idea Off the Ground
The story of the Wright Brothers is not a new one for me. Our summer trips the to Outer Banks have included restless trips to the Wright Brothers Memorial– visits punctuated with sulky complaints of...
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Hope Sticks
You could smell hope in the newly sharpened pencils. You could see it in the stacks and packs of blank notebook paper. You could hear it in the spotless new shoes squeaking on the varnished 100 year...
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School Reform or Reform School?
The third grade Virginia Standards of Learning in Social Studies (Virginia’s version of the Common Core) define community as a place where people work, live, and play (3.10). This definition is too...
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Word.
I am the daughter of a wonderful cook. While other people were growing up on casseroles, I skipped home to Salad Nicoise and Gazpacho. “We are having a Great Dinner From Life!” my mother would say....
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In the Grand “Schema” of Things
I wrote this five years ago, but I am reposting this in honor of my beautiful sister, Thanksgiving, Family, and Reading. My sister and I can read each other’s minds. Really. On Thanksgiving the table...
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Another Chapter in Room 204
February was the month of love that we started celebrating in January. January 15 to be exact. Set Up is key. This is true if you are giving a party, telling a joke, or painting a house. It is...
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Unwrapping December
Discover. Uncover. Reveal. Unwrap. This was the deliberate work of December in Room 204. We started with a stack of brown paper packages tied up with string. I had a master list of titles that...
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Homework or Home Wreck?
Not all good researchers are teachers, but all good teachers are researchers. We simply can’t help it. We hypothesize. We look for trends. We make connections. We develop questions and we seek...
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In the Shade of the Miracle Tree
Throughout my career, I have stood sentinel on the line between church and state. Perhaps you imagine that line as a dividing line between people of different religions—or perhaps that line evokes an...
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