Weekly Wisdom

Have you ever sat down and written your teaching philosophy? Do you know what your goals as an educator are in the classroom? The most important skills we can give our students are the sort of skills that transfer outside the walls of our classrooms. Skills like knowing how to enter into a conversation. Noticing when someone isn’t having a great day and asking if you can do anything to help them. Knowing how to disagree with someone respectfully. Being able to work together with a wide variety of people. An understanding of making a compromise. Knowing how to listen… View Post

Weekly Wisdom

This quote particularly struck a chord with me. I think so often when new things come around in education (in everything, not just math) there are many teachers who ignore it, cast it aside, or claim they’ve been doing it that way all along.  When we cast aside new things as things we’ve always done we lose the opportunity to develop and grow as educators. I’ve recently sat in many meetings (one a week to be exact) with a teacher whose first comment for everything is  “I’ve been teaching this way for years” or “This is nothing new to me” At… View Post

Weekly Wisdom

Do you agree that children grow into the intellectual life around them? What sort of intellectual life do you expose your students to within your classroom?  Within your school? What intellectual life are they exposed to outside of the walls of your school? View Post

Weekly Wisdom

Recently I’ve seen such a push from teachers to include picture books at all grade levels. I love this! It makes my teacher heart sing out with joy! One of my favorite courses in college was my children’s literature course. Why? Well, first of all, because I love books and have a deep appreciation for stories. More importantly, each class started with our teacher reading a picture book aloud to us. It was where I first met Elephant and Piggie. I first encountered the wonderful writing of Jacqueline Woodson in that room. Beginning the class with read aloud calmed me… View Post

Weekly Wisdom

Welcome to a new year and a new weekly wisdom. Last year weekly wisdom focused more on inspiration than best practice. One of my goals this year is to inspire reflection through the weekly wisdom series. Each week there will be a quote by a guru in the education world. After each quote will be a prompt to reflect on your teaching practices and take on the challenge or sentiment offered by the Weekly Wisdom. Please use the comments section to reflect on your teaching practices and interact with others looking to grow as educators! Lucy Calkins, what a woman! She… View Post