A few years ago, we had a tiny little friend who would come visit us every night on our front porch. [NO – this was not the tiny little friend who visited INSIDE our house – that’s a different story!!]…
9 Ideas You Can Steal from Teachers
After stumbling across Portent’s Content Idea Generator, I had a bit of fun… I threw in some favorite topics and generated some pretty giggly blog post ideas: 10 Freaky Reasons Creativity Could Get You Fired. How Learning Can Help You…
Fluency Finders
“The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” ~Dr. Seuss . For the 3rd year in a row, I just logged off of the Scholastic Book Clubs website, where…
Project-Based Learning
I recently presented a webinar for teachers on Project-Based Learning and was asked if many areas of the curriculum can be integrated into one project. I answered yes, and gave an example relating to a real-life project I am swimming…
Fly Higher, See Farther…
Room 204 students have been focused on eagles lately. “The bird that flies highest, sees farthest.” – Richard Bach We recently read a story entitled Fly, Eagle, Fly by Christopher Gregorowski. We often chat about the benefits of activating our…
A Break in the Action
You will notice that our homework this week is a little different. Hopefully the weather will cooperate, and students in Room 204 will get a chance to enjoy the change of pace. Homework is an important part of school, but…
Set up for Success
Last week I wrote about all of the strategies we are using at school to help us prepare for the upcoming MCAS. This week, I’m giving you some suggestions for what can be done at home to set your child…
Getting Silly with Spelling
Today the kids and I chatted about some of the activities we’ve been doing since September. We all agreed on the fact that some of them feel boring after all this time. In particular, we mentioned our weekly word work…
We Are In The Know!
Boy – the buzzword in third grade is MCAS. To ease anxiety and to help prepare Room 204 students, we have been doing a number of things. During Morning Meeting, we now allow 3 questions from students about MCAS (sometimes…
ECET2 + A College Visit = Lots of Reflection
I spent most of my vacation traveling far west of Massachusetts. I started off in Snowbird, UT for the Gates Foundation ECET2 convening. Over 300 teacher leaders were invited from all over the United States to come together and talk…