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Being a Connected Educator
I am preparing a brief session for teachers at my school on what it means to be a connected educator. I plan to talk about social media in general as a segue to discussing PLN’s. I am going to talk about particular sites (Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc) by sharing how I use each of these… Read more
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Why I Became a Teacher
Sometimes I forget why I became a teacher. I undervalue my expertise and experience. I find myself going through the motions of teaching but my heart is not in it. Something is missing. I don’t feel right. This often happens when I follow somebody else’s ideas or plans that I’ve had no part in creating. … Read more
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55 minutes
I have approximately 55 minutes to teach language arts.It’s not enough time, of course. But then how much time is enough time? As I work through this dilemma, I have decided that some routines are non-negotiable. Independent reading and read aloud need to happen every day, and my students need time to write and explore… Read more
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Celebrations
We have a new principal at our school.He has come to us with a mandate: to change the culture of our school.He is a man on a mission and I like where he’s going. Every week our principal asks for celebrations.We write up anything we notice during the course of the week that is cause… Read more
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Reflections on a Rough Patch
OK. So, today I experienced a rough patch with one of my classes.It made me realize how important it is to be patient and to make measured decisions, not just occasionally but every single time. I’m not sure how things started to get out of hand or when I started to get impatient. I was… Read more
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Beginnings
I had good intentions.I was going to blog at the end of the summer.And, then again after the first day of school.And, finally, at the end of the first week.But, none of that happened.These last two weeks – one for teacher PD and working in classrooms, and the other, our first one with students –… Read more
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Independent Readers are Wild Readers – #cyberPD Part I
I am currently reading Donalyn Miller’s book, Reading in the Wild as part of this summer’s #cyberPD book study co-hosted over at the Literacy Zone blog. The idea is to read two chapters at a time and write a blog post that is then linked back to one of the participating blogs for this book study. Source: http://donalynmiller.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/reading-in-the-wild.jpg?w=226&h=300… Read more
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A heads up and a teaser
A heads up – Go here for information about this wonderful new book on retrospective miscue analysis. The Essential RMA: A Window into Readers’ Thinkingby Yetta M. Goodman, Prisca Martens and Alan D. Flurkeywill be available for $7.00 until Friday, July 11th. After that date the price will double. Get yours now!And, a teaser – I will be… Read more
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Awards Ceremonies – Yay or Nay?
Last week I attended the awards ceremony at my son’s school. Although I was pretty sure he wouldn’t get an award since I hadn’t received an email to that effect – the school notifies parents if their child is to receive an award without telling them what the award is – I was disappointed. I… Read more