Accomplishments are important and I am a believer that if my accomplishments help others, I have been successful. In the mid-90s we were writing out report cards for every student. Your hands would cramp up and trying to find ways to say things briefly became an art.…
Tag Archives: elementary
Day 48 – October 26, 2022 Financial Fiduciary
I am a big fan of planning. There exists a group of people that spend money like there is no end and that they will always have money. The other piece is that people often look at the new shiny toy and feel the need to have it.…
Day 44 – October 12, 2022 Mentors
Teaching has given me the good fortune to meet many influential teachers over the last few years. One of my favorites was meeting and talking to Donald Graves. Donald Graves was a leader in the reforming of writing. His books stand out as beacons of light as a way to instruct young writers.…
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 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 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 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 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 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 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. …