There’s nothing a teacher dreads more than being absent and having to prepare for a substitute. In addition to the preparations you have to make in advance, often while you’re sick, there’s always the fear that your students will go bonkers in your absence. I’m sure this has never happened to you, when you’re absent your little cherubs sit ...

An article in this morning’s New York Times magazine has set my brain on fire.  It’s about a curriculum called Tools of the Mind that seeks to teach preschoolers self-control and executive function.  I remember reading this article from NPR on it earlier this year, and am really interested in putting some of these ideas into ...

I went to the teacher store this morning.  I spent $102, which actually shows restraint on my part.  Usually it’s $140.  Picking out labels for the cubbies for me and Ms. Mellow was really hard; I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to find nametags that were a) attractive, b) color-coded (I’m green and she’s blue), and ...

At the end of the year I returned to the children’s assessment portfolios, and once again asked them questions about letters, sounds, numbers, colors, shapes, etc.  Miss Slinger did her final assessment measuring vocabulary, rhyming, and alliteration.  And then I looked at all the results and thought about them. You know, when it’s ...