When I taught preschool at a daycare center, during my first official year of teaching, I had a big classroom with a large area where we could sit on the floor for circle time, in an actual circle. Now, many years later, I am teaching preschool in a public school, in a very small classroom.  Our [...]

Perhaps because I really started out teaching in daycare, before I taught kindergarten at that inner-city school, I still obey the rules about licensing and ratios and proper supervision.  I never want to have my students out of my sight, because if something happened to them, it would be my responsibility.  So — I want to [...]

In the Christmas break, I am looking back at this blog’s growth and development. I began writing a little bit for the blog in February, but didn’t officially launch it for real until June. Since that time, growth has been pretty consistent. I now seem to regularly get a small number of comments for every article I write, with some ...

As we come to the conclusion of Reader Appreciation Month, I want to summarize some of the things that we have learned. Today, I’ll focus on the incredible wealth of knowledge that we have learned about classroom management. I found that when I put all of the tips together, I had over 70 suggestions. I combined [...]

So Christmas is just around the corner. One month away, to be exact. For the last two months I have been posting articles nearly every day. Common wisdom says that you will build your blog most by doing just that. The blog has indeed grown. But I also have noticed that I spend more time [...]

This is my first blog and hopefully not the last.  For years (this will be my 6th year teaching) I have told myself that I will be more organized and that I will journal about my teaching experiences, so I thought now was the best time to start.  There are 3 more weeks in my summer vacation, and I plan to use them to organize and plan ...

I recently read an article written by a newly-hired teacher. She was concerned about the fall and how to establish procedures. My response was for her simply to be patient, ask lots of questions, and hang in there. When I was in her position, that kind of advice would have sounded trite and condescending to [...]