Why I Teach Occasionally during excruciatingly busy times in my years of teaching, I’ve dreamt of quitting and becoming a receptionist in a sleepy office where I didn’t care about the service or product. But I never did. I’ve stayed in this crazy world of teaching–teaching kindergarten through undergrads (not quite everything in between, but […]
How is literacy critical to the advancement of society today? I’m going to assume we all believe literacy is critical to the advancement of society. Literacy is so multifaceted, though, I wonder what are all those facets of literacy needed to advance society? Here are just a few random thoughts on this, a busy day in the middle of […]
What’s your passion project? I’m not sure it’s a project, but my passion is baking. I love to bake, anything really, but especially breads and cookies. Over the past year, I have had a bit of a passion project. I had to find new ways to bake my favorite recipes with different pans, different ingredients, […]
What are you reading, either professionally or personally? Why? If you aren’t reading, why not? Ah, today I like that third question. When I’m not reading, I like to be reminded of it. I like to be asked that question. It reminds me that a book is the ax for the frozen sea within me. […]
What have you NOT tried this school year that you WANT TO? I have a blog that I started when I taught seventh and eighth grade. It’s a photo a day blog. After two years of quietly waiting, the blog finally got a new post. I recently posted a picture on it that I had […]
What would you say to your beginning teacher-self? I would give two pieces of advice to my beginning teacher-self. Don’t be such a know-it-all. You don’t know anything, really. It’s OK to not know. It’s OK to admit your ignorance. It’s OK to have questions. In fact, you will not begin to succeed until you become […]
How should we foster question asking instead of answer getting? Ah, great question! Since I spend my days in school, I’ll consider it at the school level. Actually, just a string of random thoughts on the topic. If we can make school a place that values questions more than having all the right answers, then […]
Has anyone ever helped you in your career? Been your champion? How will you become someone else’s champion? I’m thinking of Barb Davies. She was my instructional coach when I went back to teaching in 1999 after a ten-year baby raising break. My experience teaching in the 80s was very different. We were given textbooks […]