A Teacher's Ruminations

I am trying to stick to all of my New Year resolutions. It hasn't been easy. I read every day. For school. For work. For fun. I write every day. Something important And, sometimes, not so important. I try to remember to stay in the moment. I have finished two books. 98 to go. I am not eating as healthy as I would like. I have yet to start an exercise program. At least, I have the schedule written down. Now, I just have to start going. Now, I am sitting in writing club. The four girls in my class are writing away. Well, at least three of them are. One is arranging her crayons in some kind of order. She distracts herself and those around her. Which is about everybody else since there are only four girls in the class. I try to ignore it. 10 minutes to go before the end of silent writing time. I'm doing pretty well, I think. Until one little girl approaches me ready to ask me a question, I guess - at least she's whispering - "Can I us...

I am currently enrolled in the Daily 5 Online Course at the Upper Iowa Universtiy .  It is the only course approved by the Two Sisters , creators of the Daily 5 literacy block management system , so it comes with a special stamp of approval. I have been implementing the Daily 5 in my classroom for the past 6 years, primarily in a self-contained, grade 2 Spanish bilingual classroom in Canada.  Now, I am one of two ESL teachers in grades 4 through 8 in an international school in South America.  I am mostly self-taught in the Daily 5 and even though I've been "doing" the Daily 5 for a long time now, I jumped at the chance of collaborating with other teachers on a common interest.  Thankfully, my school is paying for my course which is a great advantage. We're doing a lot of reading and responding on the online board set up by the university.  As usual, I am finding myself learning so much from the other participants.  In fact, I've started to keep careful ...

I know.  I know.  A lot of bloggers have been writing about their New Year's Resolutions.  Some even did it right before the new year and some right on the first of January.  This post might be a bit late in the stream.  A Johnny come lately, of sorts. Nevertheless, by posting my resolutions and making them public, I intend to be accountable to myself. So, I am doing this for me.  By going public, I am making a commitment to myself to carry them through. It always amazes me how easy it is to commit to something in the relative calm of a break from school.  Once I'm back in the classroom I start to fall behind.  But, I don't want to use the excuse of being too busy as a reason for not following through on my resolve. I want to build stamina so I know each resolution listed below won't become a habit right away.  I will try not to beat myself over the head if I do fall behind, which is inevitable.  I will pick myself up and...