I don’t have all the answers to gun laws and the rise of mass shootings. I can’t solve the sin and the suffering in people’s hearts. I can’t fix the trauma that children and teens have gone through. But I have chosen the career of a teacher. And that means that I have every obligation… Continue reading I Am Only One Teacher. But I Pledge to Make a Difference.
If I could teach you, dear one – To dream in bright colors, To not be afraid of ideas That no one’s ever had before, To imagine the possibilities Of “what if,” And to believe in yourself Long enough to explore them – If I could teach you, my little scholar – To be… Continue reading If I Could Teach You, Dear One
Starting year four as a teacher is at once a blessing and a curse. At last I feel like I know what I’m doing, and I feel I’m able to start refining my craft. Yet that leads immediately to craving perfection and pushing myself too hard. I write out my schedule for the week with… Continue reading When You Feel Like There Just Isn’t Enough Time in the Day
Going “off-book” is a common theater term that often instills fear and panic in the hearts of actors. It’s the first time you have to set your scripts aside in rehearsal and prove that you have all your lines memorized – when you lose your security blanket and have to blunder ahead, memorized or not.… Continue reading Year 3 of Teaching – the Year I Went Off-Book
“I remember them because the little one who clung to his father’s leg, terrified of being abandoned, needed desperately to be assured he wasn’t a rascal – he needed to know he was loveable. “I remember them because they were grace to me. Years ago, these good people wrote these good words about me and… Continue reading When It’s the Hardest to Love
For the past three years, I’ve had the privilege of directing an after-school Theater Club at our school. There are usually around 25 fourth- through sixth-graders who sign up for it – some of whom have done theater before, but most of whom have not. However, I have the same expectations for them that I… Continue reading Why We Need to Be Okay with Letting Our Kids Fail
We live in an era that tries to make kids grow up too quickly – that tries to make them give up their innocence and childhood enjoyments far too early. And I teach the age where the tension between childhood and growing up is just beginning. And I can see them – torn between wanting… Continue reading For Today, Let Them Be Eleven Years Old
How lovely to have Monday off. But Tuesday’s not that far behind it. And so a new week will begin. Am I ready for it? Am I? Am I ready to step into that classroom and embrace the wonderful chaos of teaching again? Am I ready to face the high energy and the nonstop chatter?… Continue reading A Small Pep Talk for the Worn-Out Teacher
30-Day Writing Challenge Day 25: Think of any word. Search it on Google Images. Write something inspired by the 11th image. (I admit: it’s not the 11th image. But that’s because this picture, discovered upon the search of the word “imagination” was so much more inspiring than the 11th image. My apologies.) When I was… Continue reading Classroom Secrets #3: On Teaching Children to Use their Imaginations
As I am quickly coming to find out, there are a lot of trends in the teaching world. Now more than ever, ideas for the classroom spread like wildfire through the [very useful] avenues of Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Teachers Pay Teachers and more. Some trends in fact are started by a teacher somewhere who had… Continue reading Why I Didn’t Jump on the No Homework Bandwagon
The Vintage Girl 