Reading and writing is a battleground upon which all elementary teachers toil. It sounds so civilized when said that way. It is a conflict that teachers face every day. Often the battle rages beyond our classrooms. Most cases pit modern or progressive ideas against “I learned it this way and so can my kid.”Day 36 – September 30, 2022 Teaching Battlegrounds
Reading and writing is a battleground upon which all elementary teachers toil. It sounds so civilized when said that way. It is a conflict that teachers face every day. Often the battle rages beyond our classrooms. Most cases pit modern or progressive ideas against “I learned it this way and so can my kid.”
On day 33 I spoke of a poor role model. I want to now speak of a wonderful role model from the very same conference in Las Vegas. One of the speakers was Bob Villa who was on the show This Old House at the time.…
One of the most important lessons we can teach kids is how to act. I do not mean by constant reprimand but by example and mentoring. I saw something many years ago in Las Vegas that proves my point. I mentioned the trip to Las Vegas for the NSTA conference earlier.…
Teaching in an urban school presents challenges to teaching natural sciences. Luckily we were about 4 blocks from Bluff Natural Preserve. It was easy to take them those few blocks without a bus or any other transportation issues. There was one unique touch to our walk to Bluff Lake.…
I believe that if you take yourself too seriously, others won’t take you seriously at all. That is a bold statement to take about teachers. Many teachers suffer from the “too seriously” bug. They know that their job is pivotal to the success of a community, state, and country.…
The importance of reading can never be under stated. Today I am going to talk about one of my most stressful and rewarding times as a student and seeing the same in my students. Book orders were one of the best memories I had as a child.…
I have been blessed in my career to know some amazing and influential people. But as with anything, I also learned about the worst people can bring to our society. The most frustrating occurrence was surrounding science and getting students the tools we needed.…
You may be looking askance at the graphic accompanying this post. Believe me that by time that I am finished you will understand why it is so important for me to tell this story. When I started teaching in the early 90s, it was still expected that if the women teachers wore skirts or dresses, they wore pantyhose.…
Teaching has given me opportunities that others might not have. One of my favorite was serving as an exhibit interpreter for the Imperial Tombs of China at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in the mid 1990s. It seized on my desire to learn anything I can.…
Recently I did a post about the cafeteria manager who got teddy bears for students. I want to now tell the story of the “Book Lady” that kids loved. Mrs. Truman lived down the block from Montview and had lived there for many years.…