Opportunity and flexibility are important in elementary classrooms. Too many teachers teach their lesson plans and often don’t teach their students. You sometimes have to seize an opportunity and let the planned lesson fall by the wayside. These are often the best learning days.…
Category Archives: Education
Day 41 – October 7, 2022 Thematic Phones
In the words of that great philosopher Kermit: “It isn’t being green.” Most elementary teachers use themes to enhance their rooms and build the sense of family. My first few years saw me use a frog and green theme. It was at this time that cell phones were starting to become more common.…
Day 40 – October 6, 2022 Work Wife
Usually, businesses and other organizations make sure not to have spouses working together. In our case at Montview, we were looking to hire a special education teacher. My principal asked me if it was okay to hire my wife away from the private school where she was working at the time.…
Day 39 – October 5, 2022 Know Your Audience
One of the important things for a professional is to measure their words. We have all opened our mouths and placed our foot directly in. This is even more important to be aware of if you open your mouth and insert your foot and potentially offend a supervisor.…
Day 38 – October 4, 2022 Persona Non Grata
I was a member of a small group of innovators that started technology specials in elementary. In our district, we had Carl W, Andy Y, Randy W, and me. It was the opportunity of a lifetime to create something exciting and new.…
Day 37 – October 3, 2022 Sarah
I had the joy of starting a technology special at Montview. It was a perfect rotation for a year-round school and kept the specialists on a similar schedule. I had kindergarten through 5th grade all year long. I had to develop lessons and work for every level.…
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.”Day 35 – September 29, 2022 Jesus & Moises
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.…
Day 34 – September 28, 2022 Bob Villa
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.…
Day 33 – September 27, 2022 Character Matters
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.…
Day 32 – September 26, 2022 Elementary Science
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.…
Day 31 – September 23, 2022 First Parent Conference
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.
Day 30 September 22, 2022 The White House
Presenting in large groups to other teachers is always fraught with danger. You have those in the room who are already experts and attend just to show up the speaker. Others attend who have no idea what they are getting into.
Day 29 September 21, 2022 Get Involved
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.
Day 28 September 20, 2022 Lighten Up!
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.…
Day 26 – September 16, 2022 Book Orders
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.…
Day 25 – September 15, 2022 Pre-Teaching
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 full-time.
Day 24 – September 14, 2022 Greed & Ignorance
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.…
Day 23 – September 13, 2022 Pantyhose
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.…
Day 22 – September 12, 2022 9/11
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?…
Day 21 – September 9, 2022 Always Learning
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.…
Day 20 – September 8, 2022 Mrs. Truman
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.…
Day 19 – September 7, 2022 Racism
Facing blatant racism was a new experience. I had witnessed racism daily as a kid but I never expected to see it when I was teaching. I now know that I had a very naive outlook. I believed people had enough class to keep some of their opinions to themselves and let the rest of the world go on. …
Day 18, – September 6, 2022 Would You Consider
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.…
Day 17 – August 31, 2022 Teddy Bears
I have had the opportunity to work with some people that worked tirelessly for students. I was always impressed with those that could find a unique way but touched every student’s heart. Montview had a couple of folks that changed lives for a tough demographic.
Day 16 – August 30, 2022 Network Technician
Teaching during the start of this current information and internet age was a blessing and a curse. We often had the freedom do what we wanted to do because nobody was sure of what it was we were doing. Networking equipment was one of the first big hurdles.
Day 15 – August 29, 2022 Second Jobs
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 & Noble was coming into the Denver market.
Day 14 – August 26, 2022 Teacher Sticks
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 head and shoulders above the others.
Day 13 – August 25, 2022 Collaboration
Collaboration is a key factor in the success of any group. I had been hired to teach first and second grade at Montview. This was a team that was connected and worked well together. We had our official leader. Cheryl did a nice job of keeping us focused and providing quality instruction for our students.
Day 12 – August 24, 2022 National Conferences
The previous two stories had a serious tone so it is time to return to the fun. When I was teaching at Montview I had the good fortune to help write the science curriculum for the district. I was a part of the first and second-grade team.
Day 11 – August 23, 2022 Discovery Day
Competition by kids is a subject that is loaded with strong opinions on all sides. Competition has gotten a bad reputation because of external forces. You currently see games canceled because there are no referees or umpires. This is impacting the youngest kids all the way to high school.…
Day 10 – August 22, 2022 Holidays
There are things that young teachers learn the easy way and some are learned the hard way. The difference is often dependent upon if the teacher listens to the parent, students, or colleagues. One of the hallmarks of a new teacher is the confidence that come from teacher training and a controlled student teacher setting.…
Day 9 – August 19, 2022 Alarm Clock
I hear from students that they will change their habits when they get into the “real world” but school isn’t as important. I always try to have a discussion with them that they are better off establishing good habits now when it is easier. …
Day 8 – August 18, 2022 Technology Wave
The story for today is a celebration and post-mortem of introducing students to technology. In the early 1990s, I was lucky enough to transition to the Technology Special at Montview. One of the first things we decided on was the skills that students needed.…
Day 7 – August 17, 2022 Laptops
Schools are always in search of trends and community needs. Our job is to provide an educated and prepared workforce. We spend a lot of time preparing students for careers that don’t even exist and it is sometimes a guessing game.…
Day 6 – August 16, 2022 Clifford
One of the distinct joys of teaching is the opportunity to watch students learn new skills that will carry them throughout their lifetimes. Reading instruction is the best example I can think of. It is how kids start to build an understanding of the written word and an opportunity to interact with ideas, beliefs, and experiences that are beyond themselves.…
Day 5 – August 15, 2022 Jose Rivera
The greats have debated the importance of a name for centuries. Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet asked about if it really matters: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.”…
Day 4 – August 12, 2022 Where’s Elliot
Today’s story starts with an interesting twist. Yesterday was our first snow day of the year. I know what you are thinking and in fact it was 96 degrees outside. Our HVAC chiller was down and so it was sweltering the day before and would have been worse yesterday.…
Day 3 – August 11, 2022 The Cleansing
Sharing rooms with others is sometimes challenging. It requires patience, compassion, and consideration. When I started I was in a year-round school and so 4 of us shared three rooms. You were on track for 9 and off for three. It was even better for us because we were in rooms 1, 3, & 5 so we just moved down the hall over the course of the year.…
Day 2 – August 10, 2022 Clothes Optional
I taught in a year-round school so we started in the middle of July. As you might expect the temperature was in the upper 90s for a lot of the first month of school. We had a protocol for students that may get hot.…
Day 1 – August 9, 2022 First Day
A hot day in July 1993 was my first day as a teacher in my own classroom. I was teaching at Montview Elementary in Aurora, Colorado. It was a year-round school in the northern part of the city. It was the oldest portion of the city and had a high transiency rate. …
THE DAY I WANTED TO QUIT TEACHING
We were given the question at an in-service about the day that we wanted to quit teaching. Every teacher has them and we were asked to keep this private and think about how that might also apply to students and how they feel about school.…
In My Room
There’s a world where I can go
And tell my secrets to
We grew up with the threat of being sent to our rooms. Even with the threat of our rooms, we used the time as a way to be angry, happy, lovesick, sad, hopeful, and all of the other emotions associated with being a kid.
DOCUMENT CAMERAS – THE MODERN OPAQUE PROJECTOR
Mr. Price Owen, who was my History teacher, loved his opaque projector at Lakewood High School in the 1970s. I enjoyed it when he would put something on there and we would all squint and try to read the information from a book or document.