It has been a rough couple weeks. My town, like so many others, has a community forum on Facebook. Residents share the good, bad, and everything in between. In this online community, I have noticed a growing number of complaints
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“The Dream Catcher” or The Girl Who Championed Self Doubt
I’m not sure if she was solving multiplication problems with the Checkerboard or working in Read Naturally when I called her over. I noticed she took a deep breath and had that faraway look in her eyes, but she shook
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NCLB. For Reals.
At yesterday’s weekly whole-school meeting, the video announcements included an extended slideshow from the recent Annual Junior College Road Trip that took students on visits to the in-state universities and camping at the Grand Canyon. In the slideshow was a picture of Victor sitting at
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Dream On: Stressed Students at the End of DACA
Policies, local and national, shape our classroom practices, our instructional decisions and our interactions with students and colleagues. Sometimes, that connection is hard to see, especially when policies create a culture of silence which makes it difficult to track
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Revising Results-Based Funding
Results-Based Funding With little fanfare last month, 288 schools in Arizona received the first payout of results-based funding, the largest education initiatives outlined in the Governor’s State of the State address. The initiative became SB1530, a $38.63 million bonus for
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Organized Chaos or The Prepared Learning Environment (Continued)
During our first glance at the prepared learning environment, we looked at how freedom, structure and order, and beauty are key elements that answer the developmental needs of elementary children to create structure. Today, we will look at the last
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Do Politics Matter?
I taught civics for over a decade. I took a personal vow to never disclose my political views to any student, to any staff member, or over any social medium. It was important to me that students were able to
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Balancing a Full Plate
Many people ask me how I get through my very busy school year. It’s a legit question: between teaching fifth-grade full time, taking doctoral classes, blogging and coaching, not to mention being a mom and wife, I feel overwhelmed just
Read More Organized Chaos aka The Prepared Environment
Am I ready? Before students enter the class from the first day of school to the last, it is the goal of most teachers to have the classroom ready and prepared to receive them. In addition to being functional,
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