Personal Blog
Names are fun and they can have some humor. One day almost thirty years ago was particularly challenging. A problem that Montview has is the transiency rate of the school. We often had 50 or more kids rotate through our class in any given year. Read more
I had a cooperating teacher that was very savvy when it came to training me. Student teaching is always stressful but parent-teacher conferences can be the worst. Barb decided I needed to do some of them alone while she sat and watched. She picked my Read more
Get involved. I stress this to every new teacher. I also caution them about picking what to get involved with. Ask about time commitments and extra work. Sometimes working on school or district groups requires nothing except attending the meetings and some review work. I Read more
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 Read more
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 Read more
Bureaucracy and red tape fill every profession. My first encounter with it in education was as a candidate for a teaching license. I thought it would be pretty straightforward. That was my first mistake. I was toiling away at my classes, weekly observations, and working Read more
Working on 9/11 in a school was a difficult undertaking. All of the obvious questions swirled in our heads. Do we tell the children? Do you interrupt teaching to view it? Not every classroom had a projector or TV so do we show them anything? Read more
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 Read more
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. She Read more
I have had good luck with serendipity during my career. The first example was how I started working in Aurora. I had an interview with Montview and with Rock Ridge in Castle Rock. Rock Ridge was the school where I student taught. A sixth grade Read more
It has been a long tradition that teachers will often get a second job to make ends meet. I was no different. What can be helpful is to find a position that assists your teaching. When I was getting started as a teacher, Barnes & Read more
The influence of a teacher is far-reaching with their students. Administrators can also have an extended impact. There is some debate about whether an administrator's effects are positive or negative. I have been fortunate to work with some excellent administrators. There is one that stands Read more