Growing Good People

On Oct. 7, my life did a 180. In August of 2021, I checked in with my general doctor because I was having what I thought was feelings of anxiety caused by starting another school year during a pandemic.  All the stress that teaching brought last school year was about to continue and the unknown of it all makes teaching even more difficult.  I was experiencing lightheaded episodes, slight vision changes, and exhaustion.  My mother has multiple sclerosis, so I thought that might have been the cause of these feelings.  My doctor scheduled tests to explore.   I was diagnosed with a breakthrough case of Covid on September 21, then isolated myself away from my family in my home for 10 days.  Being away from my two children, Mario 7 and Mila 5 was the most difficult part of the quarantine.  I managed to get by with a relatively easy case of Covid because I was vaccinated.  After I was back to school for a week, I was still experiencing lightheaded episodes and wanted to be checked out by my r

Dear Parents/Guardians, We are already three weeks into summer and I'm already missing your kids AND thinking about next year.  I hope this email finds you well! I'm also hoping I'll see many of you tonight at our first summer math/book club. Our kids made so much growth this school year.  I'm proud of each and every one of them!  Now, we can't let them go all summer without some sort of 'school stuff' because I can tell you from personal experience that the summer slide is real.  If you've never heard of it, there is such a thing as the "Summer Slide" where students slide backwards academically.  A 1996 study by Harris Cooper found "that all students lost at least a month of math skills every summer, with an average loss of 2.6 months." I can tell you from experience, most teachers spend the first month of school battling this summer slide. Wouldn't it be great if our kids started back to school in August right where they left

Dear Parents/Guardians, Your kids have almost made it through what might be the most difficult year of their little lives.  They have worked hard, made new friends, learned a lot, and grown in ways we might not have expected.  It's natural that the end of this year might bring on really big feelings for these (still) little kids.   These feelings might present themselves in sadness and tears.  They might also show up as anger, hyperactivity, and/or potentially annoying behavior.  Feelings about all of this ending- their time in elementary school, with me, with their friends, etc. are a lot of feelings for children to try to control.  Also, some kids feel perfectly fine about the year ending and are thrilled to say goodbye.  It may hit them a week or so into summer, or maybe not at all.  All of this is okay.  Now is a good time to have a talk with them.  Wait until your child is quiet (bedtime is a great time for me to talk with Mario) and ask what they are excited about, how they a

The school year is winding down and parents start thinking about summer learning. This is a question I see a lot at the end of the school year and I'm happy that summer learning is on their radar because the 'summer slide' is real. While a workbook isn't a terrible idea, and it's certainly better than doing nothing, there are better ways to spend your 30 minutes of daily learning over the break. Here is the email I send to parents this time of year with my thoughts on summer learning. Dear Parents, It's getting closer to the end of the school year.  There is such a thing as the "Summer Slide" where students slide backwards academically.  A 1996 study by Harris Cooper found "that all students lost at least a month of math skills every summer, with an average loss of 2.6 months." Three researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that "two-thirds of the ninth-grade reading achievement gap could be attributed to how students spent thei

Happy Black History Month!   There are lots of really great resources out there to teach black history and celebrate with your students (check out a website I've started at the end of this post that you can share with your students).  Here is a list of 4 simple things you can change in your classroom today to celebrate. 1.Play music as students arrive to class or during a break.  Bonus if you can get up and sing along with your students!  My personal suggestions include:  Stevie Wonder The Temptations    Smokey Robinson  Diana Ross Ben E. King The Jackson 5  Ray Charles 2. Look around your classroom walls.  Do your posters represent students from different cultures?  If not, replace a few.  I found these  posters of Amanda Gorman on IG (and I wish I could remember who shared them so I could give credit, but my search is coming up empty). 3. Replace some of your read alouds. There are many good picture books and novels that include characters of different cultures.  Choose one of

100% virtual.  That's how this school year started for me and we are still there.  The foundation of the magic that happens here in room 25 is a strong relationship with my students.  I've struggled with how to create that in a totally distant classroom.  In a way, this virtual setting has helped me to improve my craft (silver lining!).  Here are 5 things I've done to engage, build relationships, and keep the fun in 4th grade. 1.  Yard signs and headbands.   Before school started, I visited every student's home to introduce myself.  I took my rubber mallet and hammered in yard signs and gave each child a Meucci's Crew headband.  Then I asked each child 4 questions.             What is your favorite food?             What is your favorite movie or tv show?            How are you feeling about school starting?            What do you like to do for fun?   While these four questions seem rather surface level, they allowed me a window into each child's personality.