A Year of Reading

To My Students I am the riverbank and you are the water. You flow past me year after year fresh  eager a little wild. ...

photo via Unsplash Each day I thread the needle of my heart and stitch together my quilt-square students into a tapestry of joy and learning...

Over the past several weeks, I have found myself doing a lot of reflection trying to get this online teaching right.  I keep meaning to...

Over the past several weeks, I have found myself doing a lot of reflection trying to get this online teaching right.  I keep meaning t...

Over the past several weeks, I have found myself doing a lot of reflection trying to get this online teaching right.  I keep meaning to ...

Contact Tracing shy handshake pat on the back ponytail tug hand-over-hand cursive fist bump high five side hug wave goodbye t...

Now, More Than Ever Breathe in hope, then exhale your gratitude. Remember these truths: students over standards, patience over ...

So 2 weeks ago, I did a talk titled, "What Does It Mean to be a Literacy Teacher Today."  I focused on digital tools and all that...

photo via Unsplash In the course of a day, I rollercoaster from "this is scary/unnerving/overwhelming" to "this is s...

Teaching is hard. No, wait. Let me rephrase that. Raising up twenty-seven 10- and 11-year-olds to be kind, responsible citizens is hard...

Our current read aloud, INDIAN NO MORE, has given us lots to think about and discuss. INDIAN NO MORE is historical fiction. It tell...

photo via Unsplash Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. ~Kevin Durant High Flight The last day of schoo...

Prompts (for High School Teachers Who Write Poetry) by Dante Di Stefano Write about walking into the building  as a new teacher. Writ...

Nothing Gold after Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost Nature's first green is gold or, in the case of that bush with its s...

Amazing Face by Rebecca Kai Dotlich Amazing, your face. Amazing. It shows there will be trails to follow, porches to wave from, ...

My Teacher Mornings are rough sometimes. I fight with my mom, arrive at school in a shroud of scowl. Teacher expects me to write a...

Random Thought #1: The comments on last Friday's Poetry Friday post were an interesting conglomeration of interpretations of my ha...

We change desks every two weeks in Room 226. Students' morning work on moving day is to move all their belongings out of their desk (or...

My class was lucky enough today to visit with Irene Latham and Charles Waters via Zoom! What a generous gift of time for Irene and ...

(This post is the back history I promised in my Poetry Friday post about Irene Latham's and Charles Waters' book, Can I Touch Your H...