A Teacher's Ruminations

Some late night ramblings about advocating for our students. Thanks to  @margaretsmn for provoking us on #DigiLitSunday. Advocacy -  to speak out for those who may not be able to do so for themselves because they're afraid, they don't know how or they can't. To be the voice of our students. To speak out means to risk being labeled a troublemaker, not a team player, insubordinate just because we advocate for students. There's something wrong with that. There's something wrong when  decisions are made for the benefit  of adults in a school. When we take the easy way out because...well...it's the easy way out. No confrontation. No risk involved. Staying in the safe zone. Comfort level. But, our students deserve more than that. To have their backs. To be their advocate. Because if not us, then who?

Earth Day is  designated     as the one day during the year to focus  on the environment. A day to honor  Mother Earth. A day to renew our commitment  to the environment by changing habits and activities detrimental to a healthy  Earth. The first Earth Day took place  more than 40 years ago. A lifetime for some, but a second of time  in the history of the Earth. It's ironic,  given the short sojourn  of humans on Earth, that we have done so much   to make the Earth vulnerable    in order to make our lives easier. We never considered  what we might lose  in the process. Until  it was too late. Earth Day was born as a reminder that we are on this beautiful planet for only a short while . So, we must be stewards of our home. We must take care of it. It's really as simple as that.  Every day and not just on April 22nd of any given year. Not only have humans...

I love the topic that @MargaretGSimon from Reflections on the Teche has teased us with for today's #DigiLitSunday blog post. Why are we doing this? Why are we doing this, indeed!  Sometimes asking this question can be risky.  It didn't used to be that way.  At least I don't remember it being this bad.  When I was a new teacher,  "why are we doing this?",  was expected and taken seriously.  It demonstrated that the teacher was thinking about her or his practice and the needs of students.  Now, I don't want to give the impression that everything back then was peachy keen!  Not by a long shot! There were schools where this question wasn't encouraged at all.  However, at the time, smart administrators recognized that asking this question, and similar questions, was likely to lead to great conversations. In the current educational climate, it seems that asking, " Why are we doing this?" , immediately shut...

Slicing every day in March!! #DigiLitSunday +Margaret Simon  has challenged #DigiLitSunday bloggers to think about this: what is your burning question? My first response? I don't have just one burning question. I have many burning questions. There is so much that I still don't know even though I've been teaching for many years. You'd think that I would have things pretty clear by now - structures, routines, and lessons established in my head and replicated from year to year. But, of course, the fact that every year we have a new group of students entrusted to our care means that, while some things can stay the same, many things cannot. We have to reinvent our classrooms from year to year to meet the strengths and needs of our students.   When I reflect on this prompt, I invariably start with the should know's and don't know's before coming up with burning questions. Although I'm sure that's not where this question was hoping to take us,...

Vocabulary, like anything else, is best learned by reading a lot.  It's a simple truth that the more we read, the more words we encounter, and the more words we will learn as they appear in different contexts.  Yet, sometimes this doesn't seem to be enough.  W e sense that we need to do more for a student who is struggling. Or, maybe we feel internal or external pressure to demonstrate that we are doing more , even if that more does not really help.  In my school, this conversation surfaces when we have students in the middle grades, or later, who have not had a rich experiences with books or who are learning English as another language. This is compounded if these students do not have a strong literacy background in their native language. They may have few strategies for figuring out new words. They may get stuck on a word they don't know or can't pronounce. They don't understand that reading on is a viable strategy because it places due emphasis on constructin...

#DigiLitSunday purpose This is a word that demands attention.  Commitment.  Focus.  Seriousness.  purpose   We all seek purpose in our lives.  Without purpose we are lost. Stranded. Without purpose we have no direction.  That's why we look for something or someone to give us the praise - validation -  that we sometimes desperately seek.  The validation that will reassure us our lives have purpose.  But, external validation is not what we need. As a mom, my purpose is to support my children as they carve out unique paths in the world. Although I cautiously dole out advice, it is just that. Advice. What my children do with it, and everything else they encounter, is what makes their life their own.  As a young mom, I was drawn to Khalil Gibran's poem about how parents are simply conduits for their children to this life. As they grow older, we need to let them go.  They need to mak...