Iowa City is a happy place for my family. I sound like my students with their writing, but it's true. It's always been a fun place for us to visit, ever since my wife and I started dating. Her aunt and uncle... Continue Reading →
Yeah, it's not Friday, I know. Who knows, maybe there will be TWO of these things put out! 🙂 I had a blog started about being positive in the face of a lot of negative stuff. It's been a hard... Continue Reading →
If you've come for the happy thought on Friday, that will not be today. I blew up last night. Lost my temper, lost my cool, and I'm not proud of it. My youngest daughter is a beautiful child. She... Continue Reading →
I know: - "learning is messy." - "a quiet classroom isn't always learning." - "I know my class is engaged by the noise level." - Insert your own volume-based educational statement here. Heck, I've said some of those things out... Continue Reading →
Today is "Black Friday" a day, as one blogger put it, "the American version of The Hunger Games but with sale items instead of food." Seems about right. The thankfulness of yesterday turns into the commercialized feeding frenzy of today. So, our plan... Continue Reading →
Now wait just a dang second.... isn't whole grade sharing the bane of small school existence? It's this a death sentence for independent districts, getting swallowed up, creating larger, less personal learning spaces? In some cases, yup. This is my... Continue Reading →
Tonight, we tried our first "Literacy Open House", similar to a open house we had last year with math. All of our elementary teachers worked on some kind of literacy topic, preparing a 15 minute presentation that would hold three... Continue Reading →
You know, getting this dang blog done on a Friday is killing me!! 🙂 Yesterday it was school, ball practice, high school play, then home. From 7:40 AM to 10:15 PM, I had a total of 30 minutes at home.... Continue Reading →
I didn't get my post up yesterday because I was with my family on our first college visit. That made me feel very old, very quickly watching all this teens and early 20somethings running around, having the times of their... Continue Reading →
The Life of a Conflicted Teacher 