The first assignment for one of my doctoral classes this semester is to write a 2-3 page paper on the following: What is good teaching?  It is meant to be a short, casual way for our cohort to get to know each other better and dig into how we want to explore this idea together. My assignment seems less like … Read More

Somehow it is Thursday again and as I sat here staring at the snow falling heavily outside my window and on to the evergreens in the yard, I laughed as my mom told me it was 79 degrees back in my hometown of West Covina, CA.  Days like this make me feel as if I am so far away from my … Read More

    I have been fascinated by the Throwback Thursday concept on social media for quite a while. Admittedly, I have also been slightly horrified as I imagine friends from high school or college posting awful pictures of me online. But what I have loved watching is the collection of small moments that each person posts that give us insight … Read More

I am sure I could write a much more scholarly post than what I am going to write below.  There is a a lot of our history I am going to gloss over quickly to get to my reflection so please forgive me now for not properly citing and referencing! What is the purpose of education?  I mean, really, what … Read More

Last week I wrote about listening to my students and the shock I received when I realized that I was always planning for my students but not with my students. In fact, I was doing the same thing that teachers complain about others doing to us.  It wasn’t that I wasn’t listening to my students but rather, that I was listening to them only after I … Read More

I always think of myself as a teacher who listens to my students. As a teacher who has a democratic classroom. As a teacher who is student-centered. But this was thrown in my face when I had a heart-to-heart with my students about our math class. To be frank, math workshop just wasn’t working. For me. For them. We all … Read More

We all know the benefits of reading in school. That’s not something I need to discuss with anyone coming here. We all spend endless hours planning and revising our reading blocks – figuring out how to squeeze in more independent reading time, how to have one more conference each day, how to build the conversations in our class and how … Read More

Yesterday, my class had that Magic Moment. If you’re a teacher, you know exactly what that moment is. It’s the beginning of the day and the kids are coming in as you greet them. Then suddenly, you have to step out of the room for some reason – to talk with a parent, because some catastrophe is going on down … Read More

I know I wrote about controlling students in my last post, but this topic is still nagging at me…and probably will continue to do so in our current educational climate. But I don’t want to just write about how we need to release control a little bit. I want to think about how we balance between scaffolding the learning for … Read More

Today was the first day of school. And no matter how many first days I have, I am never quite prepared for it. Ever. I am not prepared for how nervous I will feel. Or how sleepless the night before will be. Or how frazzled I will feel in the morning. Or how exhausted I will feel in the afternoon. … Read More