Bad News: Last week I rewatched The Bad News Bears. The movie came up randomly in a conversation with a loved one, as most things do. She mentioned she had never seen the movie. This caught me by surprise. I suggested we watch it that night if I could find it available in a streaming app.
I’m not referring to the new, sterilized 2005 version, mind you. Rather, the raw, gritty 1976 original. I warned her it would be a little rough to watch. Boy, how I understated that!
A song by the band Bush is playing. Not my personal favorite but it leads me back to the bands that paved the way before them: Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Alice in Chains, Breeders, Pearl Jam.
The cooks start discussing grunge and Generation Xers. “I’m not a Gen Xer, I think I am a millennial.” He is briefly interrupted, “I thought they were called generation Y?” The first speaker continues, “I read somewhere that you are considered a Generation Xer if you can remember where you were during the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. I can’t.”
I can. And that day was a wakeup call.
Summer Learning: Ever notice kids tend to misuse the word bored?
As a teacher, it can be frustrating to hear this word from one of our students. In my Montessori classroom, I give the children a beautifully prepared environment. I try to keep all the materials on the shelves as relevant and as appealing as I can.
Then it happens.
One day, about midmorning, a student will come sit next to me. We look at each other without saying much. I might ask them, “how is your morning going?” They share, “I’m bored.”
Summer Learning Loss – Fact or Fiction? Most of us have heard of the so-called summer learning loss, sometimes referred to as the ‘summer slide.’ Back in the early 1980s, researchers came to the conclusion that students’ achievement scores declined over the summer months. To this day, it remains the go-to industry standard.
Fast forward to now. We definitely continue to hear proponents endorsing the idea of an increasing learning gap and harping on its message. However, researchers are now questioning the validity of a research project occurring so many years ago.
Last week we began exploring how homework can sometimes benefit students. But, under the wrong set of circumstances, it can sometimes hurt students too.
What the research shows us is the correlation between homework and performance is stronger for older students—in seventh through 12th grade—than for those in younger grades.
I limit the amount of homework I assign to my students. When I do assign homework, I hope to get the most “bang for the buck.” I try to focus on the areas that seem to count most: Reading & vocabulary, mathematical reasoning skills and practical life activities.
The controversial topic of homework. As a teacher, there seems to always be an end of the year push to quicken learning over the few remaining days. This is especially true during this weird, broken one. We believe, for whatever reason, many students have seemingly fallen behind. There must be a way, we think, to catch them up during these last few weeks?
It can be tempting to turn to homework. On the surface, using homework to pick up the slack seems advantageous. But, it may be less effective of a strategy than most of us think.
Complete Sentences: Teaching them is the bane of my existence.
Teaching kids to write complete sentences can be a tough road to hoe. I wish not to quell any student excitement for writing. Even more, I alway hope to make lessons and reviews on sentence structure meaningful. Avoid the drill and kill. But as students get older, they start to buck at the rules and at writing conventions.
Fake News: As a public school teacher, I feel frustrated. Disheartened. Defeated. Let me back up a bit.
Being a relatively new blogger, I’m afraid to get too opinionated in what I write. Nevertheless, this is going to be an opinion piece. It is an opinion that has bubbling inside me for over a year.
Being Teacher Appreciation Week, why not share my opinion about my fellow teachers now?
Empowering Children: The DIFFERENCES Between an ACTIVE and a PASSIVE Childhood can last a lifetime.
What do I mean by active vs. passive childhood? An active childhood is one where a child is encouraged to create and to think for themselves. They are expected to carry their weight at home. Even more, they are given free, unstructured time just to be alone, to be still. A passive childhood would then be the opposite.
Independence sometimes feels like a lofty but unobtainable goal for your child. I’m here to tell you it isn’t! Here are six strategies for empowering children.
This past Saturday, I invited my students to join me in the Annual Milwaukee Riverkeeper Spring Cleanup. I get some sort of weird satisfaction from picking litter up with my grabber tool. Looking for a central site safely away from busy traffic, I stumbled upon the Kinnickinnic Trail.
Like many educators, I have deep concerns for my students when they get older. What legacy are the generations before them leaving behind?
Our world is on fire and our planet is melting. Is it too late to affect real change?