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parents

Just a little circle-time sharing… One of my classes just loves to share. I keep telling them I don’t care, but…they keep sharing anyway… I’ve had to institute the “WTP?” rule. What’s the point? “Last night, I ate Chinese food.” “Thanks for sharing. And the point is…?” “Ummm. I thought the Kung Pao chicken was tasty. But it was [...]

A Memphis, Tennessee Mom went Crazy at her daughter's school, attacking teachers with a sword. 

Tuesday:  Chutney got off the bus and told me, “M___ said a bad word to me!”  She was almost in tears.  (M___ is the fifth grader she has a crush on.)  Turns out the bad word was the “b” word.  Who calls a four year old girl a “b”?!!  I tracked down our behavior specialist, and told her what happened.  She talked to M___ and called his mother.  ...

sometimes ''fun'' isn't what's healthiest for a child On typical parent-teacher conferences, I interact as best as I can in Spanish.  It becomes a role that I play, an act that I put on based upon memorized lines, key words and body language.  My smile is thin and plastic, my energy pumped up by an edgy anxiety.  It's not that I am afraid of ...

It’s been a while.  A new grade, a new curriculum, new standards, 33 beings each with his or her own concerns and quandaries, and not to mention my own in-house proto-teenager draped over the couch in poses of iPodded distress.  Not a lot of energy to write.  Complete sentences.  Even. When there are that many kids in a class, no teacher can ...

Earlier today I read John Spencer’s interesting blog  about books that make students uncomfortable: books should make you feel uncomfortable John mentioned that he disliked To Kill a Mockingbird, and many of us jumped in to defend the book. Atticus would have been proud! To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my favorite childhood books. As [...]

That’s right. Only one parent needs to complain to entice an entire school district to remove dictionaries from schools. Nope, this isn’t a Fark.com news item (yet as far as I know). This is an entire school district removing a specific edition of dictionaries because the term “oral sex” is in them. How ridiculous is this? I know someone will ...

So last year I started sharing daily communication with the parents in my room via a Google Docs spreadsheet. It was a huge success! The reason I bring this us is I've been asked by my district to teach a workshop on some of the ways I communicate with parents, i.e. - Googling for Communicating with Parents! So while I'm spending some time with ...

As my students gathered in groups to create public service announcements (PSAs)  last week, most of them immediately wanted to create something humorous. They are teenagers who are always in search of humor. One student came to me before school and wanted to know if she could work alone. She was deeply moved by all of [...]

Since the beginning of the new year I've been trying to jot down notes about how school went. I'm keeping the entries short and sweet, just enough to remember all the crazy ups and downs of the classroom. Here's some of the more stressful moments of this week: One student (Let's call him ''D.H.'' for Dear in Headlights...what he looks like when he ...