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Elisa Waingort

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A Teacher Musing Out Loud

  • Historical Fiction Book Clubs

    Slicing every day in March! Today was the first day of our historical fiction book clubs. The kids are reading My Brother Sam is Dead, Out of the Dust, Children of the Fire, and Home of the Brave, in groups of two’s and three’s.  During our daily reading status check-in, several of my students said they were… Read more

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  • Triggers and Celebrations

    Slicing every day in March! I’ve been wondering a lot about my triggers lately. What makes me happy? What makes me sad? What discourages me. What gives me hope. And, much to my chagrin, many of the things that produce a strong emotion in me are extrinsic in nature. I seem to get my value… Read more

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  • It’s All in My Head

    Slicing all month in March! February was a tough month. I was restless. I was impatient. I was unmotivated. There were a lot of things bothering me.  Keeping me up at night.  Worrying my head in the morning. Silly things. Things out of my control. Confronting those things was not in my radar during February.… Read more

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  • Dreams

    Thanks Ruth Ayres for providing a space to make celebration a part of our weekly routines. I celebrate dreams.I don’t have a long term dream that recently came true to talk about here like in Ruth’s Dreaming Big post. (Congratulations, Ruth!). Instead, today I celebrate a multitude of dreams, past and present. My dreams have given me hope and kept me going… Read more

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  • Competition vs. Collaboration

    As soon as I read that the common topic for our #CompelledTribe blog posts this week would be competition vs. collaboration,  I was on high alert.  I flinched.  I bit my tongue.  I was on the defensive. Collaboration, yes. Competition, no. This has been my mantra. Nevertheless, I decided to set aside my gut reaction long… Read more

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  • Grateful

    Today I’ve been thinking of that saying, “when one door closes, another one opens“. You know the one I’m talking about.Sometimes a door closes and it’s not a surprise. Although you’re hopeful, deep down inside you know what the outcome is going to be even before you go down that path. But, even though you… Read more

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  • Vocabulary Instruction

    Vocabulary, like anything else, is best learned by reading a lot. It’s a simple truth that the more we read, the more words we encounter, and the more words we will learn as they appear in different contexts. Yet, sometimes this doesn’t seem to be enough. We sense that we need to do more for a student who… Read more

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  • Time

    Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of time.How fast it goes.How there’s never enough of it.How little reverence we have for time.How we take time for granted.And, I’ve been thinking about this because my oldest daughter just got married this summer. It seems like just yesterday when she was still a little… Read more

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  • Purpose

    #DigiLitSunday purpose This is a word that demands attention.  Commitment.  Focus.  Seriousness.  purpose  We all seek purpose in our lives.  Without purpose we are lost. Stranded. Without purpose we have no direction.  That’s why we look for something or someone to give us the praise – validation –  that we sometimes desperately seek.  The validation… Read more

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  • How Do I Focus?

    How do I focus?  #DigiLitSunday This is a great question with several entry points and no easy answers.  I could write about how I stay focused, or not, by getting things done despite a myriad external and internal work demands.  Or, I could write about how I maintain a focus on what matters.  Or, I… Read more

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