Today, it felt like we were beginning a “new normal.” Our school district started online classes. Our youngest is a senior in his last semester of high school. Since our district also employs a block schedule, he luckily has only a few classes. Here, I will admit that I do not do well with transitions…
The gauntlet was thrown late yesterday afternoon on the immediate plan to close public schools in Wisconsin due to slowing the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Governor Evers issued a mandate that all K-12 schools in our state be closed from March 18th through a tentative reopening date of April 6th. The option for districts…
By, mid-afternoon yesterday, we heard of more local universities moving classes to an online platform due to the COVID-19 virus. While we understand this move, moving a course (or, worse – part of a course) online is not as easy as it sounds. While I’ve never taught online, I do have digital course experience. In…
The sun is out and I am itching to get my hands dirty. One of the advantages of having a garden club for students for over 15 years is that during the winter, I was still playing with worms, planting bulbs, and planning for spring. Missing an Activity This is the first winter since 2004…
Today, I am inspired to write a short post about staying healthy. As I have written before, staying healthy has become more of a priority for me as a woman of 50, plus. Going to the YMCA is becoming a regular routine. I actually find myself looking forward to going! I think that part of…
This morning I am wondering how many of our high school students are feeling. The school is instituting a new (changed) policy on cell phone usage. As I understand it, although there were guidelines before, cell phone usage in the classroom was left up to each individual teacher. Now, each department was charged with coming…
Last Thursday I was lucky enough to go on a field trip to the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul with my son’s art class. The high school anatomy class students were also in tow. For about 45 kids, mostly in grades 11-12, there were three teachers and two parent chaperones. I had not…
Ten years ago I had my Evergreen Garden Club students participate in a large Citizen Science Project. It was co-hosted by Monarch Watch and NASA (yes, that NASA). Monarch larvae were sent into space via the space shuttle to arrive at the International Space Station. At the same time, project participants, including those in my…
Since my work a week ago when I conducted a mini-lesson on writing Haiku at Wetland Education Days, I have been thinking a lot about writing. One of the most common questions I received from the students was whether their haiku needed to rhyme. Of course not, was my response! Flow trumps rhyme in poetry…
Wetland Celebration Today I was part of a group of Environmental Educators celebrating our Wetlands. We hosted fourth, fifth, and sixth graders from 9 – 2pm in thirty-minute stations. I had the pleasure of seeing 177 students, plus all their teachers today for lessons on Nature Poetry. Since our stations were only 30 minutes each,…