It’s here. The end of sophomore year in high school for my youngest son. I know, it is usually not a milestone that is marked. For our family, it has become one. Yesterday, we attended parent – teacher conferences at our high school. Never again will we have a sophomore aged high school student. A…
education today
You say Potato, I say Potato. I say Interdisciplinary, You say Transdisciplinary. Do we understand each other?
Staff Meetings While presenting at a staff meeting the other day, I explained that in the after school club I led I used an interdisciplinary approach to my teaching. Going on to explain, I told how one unit in garden club will have all subjects interwoven into it – Science, ELA, Social Studies, and yes,…
An Important Quote for Leaders
Today’s blog post will be brief. Primarily this is due to digging around in my stacks of papers, handouts, and folders for visual aids I need to help me make a presentation tomorrow morning. The presentation will be to an entire staff of elementary school teachers, none of whom know me very well. A few…
Procrastination Fueled by Inefficiency, Disorganization, and Devaluing
Procrastination is not usually something that affects me personally. Character traits such as being highly organized, efficient, motivated, and goal orientated are more likely terms you might hear to describe me and my work ethic. However, here I am procrastinating! I should be working on my graduate course work this morning. Still left to do…
The Fate of PTO: Are all Parent Teacher Organizations the Same?
Last night I went to a TEAM meeting at the school where I serve as Garden Club Advisor. TEAM is their version of the PTO association. I do not know and could not find what that acronym stands for. I went to the meeting to introduce myself to the parents and briefly explain what we…
Investments in Home Maker Spaces
About a year ago, we got a 3-D printer. As parents, we try to support our children’s interests. Outside of school, each of our sons have some self-cultivated abilities that seem to be serving them well to complete their well-roundedness and sense of accomplishment. To a very large extent, they are innate talents, supported by…
Use Your Voting Rights Tomorrow
Tomorrow is the school board election in our town. There are two incumbents and one challenger for two seats. Are you going to vote? How well do you feel you know the candidates? Do you feel like you know what issues for which they each stand? Do you value the importance of a new voice…
Giving Back to National History Day
Have you ever heard of National History Day (NHD)? Let me tell you about my past experience with it as I reference my three sons. Then, I will elaborate on the experience I had with it today at our regional competition. One Website – that progressed from school to regionals and on to the…
Whack a Mole ….
Place Based Learning: Instructional (PBL) Strategies was a one credit graduate course I took this past month. Thankfully, it is over! From my past experience one credit classes seem to be over-filled with heavy assignments, placing demands on one’s time that seem incongruous with the gains received. Such was the case with this class. However,…
Art on a Cart
Some years ago, before we expanded and built a fourth elementary school in our district, our students had art on a cart. Since there were so many students and only one art room, part-time art teachers visited classrooms for the time the students were scheduled to have art class, which I believe was once in…