The last few weeks in PreK for our youngest grandsons has been full of learning. I’m sharing images with a few brief comments. A few weeks ago we sampled, measured and sketched drawings of different kinds of apples. We read the Gail Gibbons book about apples (I chose specific pages to share as it’s a …
In this time of COVID, our adult kids decided not to send each of their youngest children to preschool. I asked the kids if they were willing to send their sons to our home a few days a week so that I could learn with the boys. My original teacher certification is age 3 through …
What our global community has experienced since the new year began, is unprecedented. Three months ago, no one knew that SARS-CoV-2 existed. Now the virus has spread to almost every country, infecting at least 446,000 people whom we know about, and many more whom we do not. It has crashed economies and broken health-care systems, …
A pivotal point in a reader’s journey is when she realizes, either intuitively or explicitly, that the goal of reading is to obtain meaning. Understanding the goal of reading moves our students from Reading as Compliance to Reading as Learning — a critical shift. —Dave Stuart Reading for meaning should be the goal for all readers. It …
Kids Who Can’t Read Teacher: “I’m looking at this running record for Andrew (5th grade student) and he can’t read words with multiple syllables. When’s he’s stuck and he tries to decode, I notice he doesn’t even really know vowel sounds.” Admin: “Which STAAR practice group is he in?” Teacher: “He meets with Ms. Pratt, …
When RtI Seems Lacking We could teach almost every student to read by the end of 1st grade. So why aren’t we doing it?–Dr. Richard Allington I spend most days now on elementary campuses speaking with grade level teams, coaches and campus administrators about their students who are not reading on grade level. I’ve spent …
This blog post was originally published back in 2018, but we need this discussion again. Many teachers are agonizing over their students and how well they’re prepared for various assessments at this time of year. Let’s have a reality check, shall we? How many times did I have this conversation with someone throughout my almost …
Who knew that Jim Cramer, host of CNBC’s show, Mad Money would speak truth to this 30 year veteran educator? Cramer, who is co-founder of TheStreet, Inc., a best-selling author, with previous experience as a stockbroker and hedge fund manager, has something to say to those of us in education. And what he says is worth …
Last week I visited a campus for a scheduled day-long session. I was early so the instructional coach and I chatted about her life outside school, books she’s currently reading, a recent training opportunity she’d had. When I asked Evelyn how she felt about the day ahead of us, she shared where she felt the …
Years ago, I was part of a group trained in my district to be a Curriculum Facilitator. That’s a fancy title for the person who represented their campus at district curriculum writing meetings. My title meant that I wrote curriculum with a team of other teachers based on input from the teachers I represented from …
