Category: Uncategorized

I have two presentations in the next ten days as well as a new unit to lay out in reading and writing for my teammates and I am feeling a bit overwhelmed. I haven’t blogged in months and a part of me knows I don’t have time for this. I should be prepping for my […]

Last Friday morning I had one little friend show up a bit later than usual and miss all the socializing he usually does during our breakfast time. And then he didn’t join us for our morning meeting. I sat near the class (a different student runs our morning meeting each day so I’m there but […]

For the first time since January 2020, which feels like eight lifetimes ago, we got to spend this past weekend in Philly for Educon. I first attended Educon in 2009, the second year the conference happened, and I haven’t missed a year since (although we all missed 2021 and 2022). In 2010 my husband joined […]

Some years ago I started having my students set up our classroom library, thanks to much nudging and encouragement from a friend. It’s no small process every year with all the work we do beforehand and then the ridiculous number of books we have. This year it has felt like my third graders have struggled […]

Dear Teacher Friends, We hit 92 degrees today and it managed to do so just about when we had outdoor recess, of course. We had a fire drill this morning and we’ll have another on Friday (apparently we missed May’s so we had to do it today and then we’ll still have to do June’s […]

If you are a teacher or know any teachers then you already know this, but this has been a hard year. And that’s such an understatement. It’s been hard for so many different reasons, but on some recent mornings, as I ran, I could see more clearly part of why. I am now going to […]

I was a first year teacher when the shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado happened. I am currently in my 24th year of teaching. In nearly a quarter century, how many children have been murdered in their classrooms and hallways and cafeterias? How many families have sent their children off to school in […]

My relatively short daily commute unusually includes listening to my local NPR station. That 15-25 minutes or so in the morning and in the afternoon keeps me somewhat informed of what is happening around the world and I am grateful for that. I intentionally listen without any adaptations (rather than to specific NPR podcasts or […]

On my drive to work this morning I heard something on NPR that made me laugh (it was barely twenty minutes ago and I have no memory of what it was). The laugh almost immediately became tears. That’s where I am right now. I am as emotionally fragile and raw as I can ever remember […]

I’m feeling overwhelmed. My hope is that if I write about why I’m feeling this way I will either feel some control over it or I’ll wise up and change something! It remains to be seen. This school year is hard. It’s hard for educators everywhere, I think. Our team is having an extra tough […]