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On the one hand, spending a morning with preschoolers can be lovely and simple. Read stories, play, follow routines, talk, play outside, learn about interesting things. On the other hand, spending a morning with preschoolers can be made frustrating and
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I work in a pretty great school. We have a warm, supportive environment, and our school is welcoming to adults and children. I don’t have any plans to leave, and that wasn’t true of the first three schools I worked in. On the other hand, we have our flaws.
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Everyone is aware of the teacher’s strike taking place in Chicago, but I wonder if I am alone in feeling frustrated by the media coverage. Everything I read about it contradicts something else I read , and not one article has given me the whole story.
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Our children are away at camp, so last night my husband and I had a Wednesday date for dinner and a movie (“Crazy, Stupid, Love” — highly recommended). At dinner, he said, “Do you have any goals for this coming school year?” And with that, I was off.
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I just got an email from “Barnsey” (as Mrs. Mimi calls it) and they are having an online sale for teachers. Teach Like a Champion is only $15.37 on sale (instead of $27.95). Vivian Gussin Paley has a new book! Actually, it came out last year, and I somehow
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It’s called Mrs. Mimi Teaches , and is going to be full of ideas to help teachers in their classrooms. I say “going to be” because as yet, it’s pretty spare on content. However, as Mrs. Mimi is a fellow lover of books, school supplies, and being organized,
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Okay, no. Joking. What I really want to do is teach teachers. I don’t want to get a PhD, however. I’d totally suck at writing a dissertation (I could never get an A in college on any paper that was longer than 12 pages — I lost control of the form at
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Inefficiency in education drives me nuts. Long pointless meetings, or staff development that is inane and worthless — these things make my blood boil. We have so many more important things to be doing. Sometimes, however, we waste our students’ time and
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Wow, yesterday’s post certainly touched a nerve. That was the most hits I ever got on my blog, and the most comments. So thank you, everyone, for being part of the conversation. So the question is, how do preschool teachers strike a balance between helping
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Yesterday a teacher/mentor from the early childhood department came out to my class to observe Deer, so that she could advise me on referring Deer for possible special ed assessment. Of course, wouldn’t you know it, Deer was having a pretty good, on-target
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This is the first card I’ve got posted above my meeting area blackboard. Here’s what I do to help the children meet these goals: Copy/print own name: The children are expected to sign in every day. Some of them could write their names already, but others
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In Sunday’s New York Times magazine there was a letter to the editor that gave me pause: Despite her admirable developmental perspective, Pamela Paul fails to consider the effect of a sociocultural context that utterly ignores the developmental needs
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Miss Mellow and I met at a coffee shop on Saturday morning to plan out our year. We worked for an hour and a half and could have easily gone for another hour. We were in the “flow” and having a great time discussing curriculum, how to balance all our
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I spent the day with the other pre-k teachers in my district (by the way, how DO you spell pre-k? Pre-K? PreK? Anyway.) and it was great to see everyone. Ali (the former special ed teacher who worked in my room for four years but now has her own pre-k
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I suppose I could have titled this post everyone has different strengths (and weaknesses) , or maybe nobody can do it all (but we should die trying) . But right now I just feel like a failure. I went through our portfolios to see how the kids are doing
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