The spring semester is the busiest time of year for me as a teacher. I don’t necessarily mean that I’m physically more busy, though sometimes I am. The spring is more demanding of all my cognitive and emotional resources. If you know a teacher, that person likely feels the same way. Pray for us ❤️ […]
During a free write, I wrote this on the board. After I call time, I always share my writing and encourage anyone who wants to to share all or part of their writing. This time, I asked them to correct my work. They had a LOT to say. After taking a few suggestions, I posed this […]
We are studying poetry right now in my ELAR classes. Usually, I have my students write whatever genre we are reading, that way, I can give them effective mentor texts and strategies. Today, I taught a strategy called “free association” to help my students generate topics and ideas for a new poem in their individual […]
This question has been haunting me all day. For some reason I had the occasion to tell (an edited version of) this story to my first period class at my previous school one morning. Then, I was again reminded of it as I talked with a student who sometimes calls me mom. Again, the question […]
I was standing in line at the school cafeteria the other day. There was a student in front of me. The cafeteria server was asking the young girl to choose an option. From behind the serving line, I hear a familiar mantra: “this or that, mija”. Mija. Four years of elementary school lunches came rushing […]
