Learning to be a teacher, one day at a time…
When it comes to reading I've always felt like a bit of a fraud. Donalyn Miller's The Book Whisperer and Reading in the Wild have inspired me to give time and space for children to regularly read in class. Yet at the beginning of this year, I was, at best, a sporadic reader. I'd polish off half... Continue Reading →
Who would like to join me in doing a collaborative read aloud in September? The TED talk The Windows and Mirrors of your child's bookshelf by Grace Lin provoked my thinking about the literature I am sharing with my class. Overwhelmingly the books I share as read aloud with my class are American with a few... Continue Reading →
Our time with children is long but it is also fleeting. The 8-year-olds I teach will quickly forget the lessons on spelling and units I plan. They'll build up new knowledge and skills as they make their way through the school system and out into the world. If I work hard, in twenty or thirty years... Continue Reading →
I loved this TED. As a teacher who loves sharing books with students, it did get me thinking. I do tend select books that offer kids that window into the world. The one to explore different possibilities within the realm of fiction and make the connections back to reality. Is honesty always the best policy?... Continue Reading →
Every so often situations in the classroom pause me to despair at the future of the world. We have just started a new book, the stunning Fish by LS Matthews. It's a small book that packs a real punch. A story of a child of aid workers forced to flee a land due to war and... Continue Reading →
Today is world read aloud day. In the past I've celebrated this day by making movies and connecting online. But today I find myself celebrating in the power of stories. Over the last few days our chapter book Wonder, has provoked so many discussions. About justified force. Polio. Today it was the holocaust. Through fiction... Continue Reading →
One of the joys of a good read aloud is the characters of the book become members of our class. Alley Nickerson. August Pullman. They've become part of our classroom language. Their lives intertwine with our own and give us time to pause and reflect on the choices we make in our own lives.
After the poignant Fish in a Tree - the class has bid farewell to Ally Nickerson and is welcoming the brilliant ensemble of characters in Wonder into our classroom. What better way to start than with some Wonder-inspired self-portraits. Thanks to Keri-Lee Beasley for the idea and how-to.
This year we are starting off our year with Fish in a Tree. It's a story of a child with dyslexia struggling to fit in at school and in the world when she is not able to read. In many respects it's been a challenging read for my Year 4s - they often struggle to... Continue Reading →
A few years ago I had the best PD so far of my teaching career - spending time in @sherrattsam classroom. There I was introduced to the concept of the bubblecatcher. Sam gave an address at learning2 last year on the topic of Bubblecatchers. The idea of documenting and tracing ideas appealed to me and... Continue Reading →
Teaching the Teacher 