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School Supply List for 2015-16

Parents, please have your 6th grade students bring the following items to school on day one:

· Enthusiasm for learning. If your student is unable to bring this material, please let us know and enthusiasm will be provided for them.

· 48 jumbo erasers, because we will make lots of mistakes this year.

· Courage. It’s okay to be afraid, but it’s not okay to not try.

· A tabbed binder. Some teachers haven’t embraced a paperless classroom, and managing paper is an important life skill and will always be essential in the future.

· A computer. They need to be learning to use it for their future, and ours just aren’t that great.

· 2 boxes of tissues, for when the drama of middle school becomes too much. One for me, and one for your student.

· 24 Number 2 pencils – one for every hour of standardized testing they will endure, and 4 more just incase they break them in frustration.

· 2 guaranteed and confirmed parent-teacher conference dates. Signed in blood.

· 11-12 Years of high quality parental supervision, encouragement, and respect.

· A box of 8 thank you notes, one for each of the teachers and one for you…it takes a village, and your student will learn to recognize the love they are getting. If not this year, than someday. They should be prepared.

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School was my home.

The product of two minimally educated, joyless, xxxx people, I had listtle warmth and caring givne me and no few role modesl from which to learn. no loving individuals around to care for me. My teachers found a vast capacity for learning, low self esteem, and a dirth of loving adults surrounding me.

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I was always carried away by big ideas.  I am seized by the moment and feel pretty invincible.  At four, I thought I could make the most beautiful dress ever, by pulling my mom’s wedding dress out of a box and cutting it down to my size. It was a great idea and it did look amazing. Until I saw her face.  Ruined? Woops.  Hadn’t thought about that.

I have the same propensity today.  Big, bold, sweeping ideas. Don’t worry, I’ll work out the issue as I go. I am more a little more restrained than I was at four;  I have learned to slow down and think about the effects a bit more. But still, the number of times that errors have crept in leave me teetering on the edge of insecurity frequently.  In my movement toward the new, the innovative, have I left something big out of the picture?

That's where the power of collaboration works its magic. Just a few good team members who appreciate, support and double check each other is a beautiful thing. They are my safety net. They have also taught me that public mistakes are part of the process and can even encourage my students to try scary things without paralyzing fear. I still know the rush of adrenaline when I have made a mistake due to moving too fast; but I know the security of the net as well.

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You walk into a room. The lights are low, but the atmosphere is charged with excitement. The adult is down on the same level as the kids. She circles the room, stopping to engage each student as they write or read.

The teacher takes a seat in her chair. The students are calmly asked to put away their work. It's lesson time. It is brief; the teacher knows she will lose the students' attention if she drones on too long. Whenever possible, she gets them up, moving.

This is my classroom. I strive to create the scene above each and every day. I believe in teaching to every child, allowing them to own what they learn and to understand why what they are learning is important. I believe in choice in learning. My goal is to develop life-long readers and writers, not just those who can spit back answers on a test or create a formulaic piece of writing that, while grammatically correct, lacks creativity and originality.

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IPads and teaching...our school goal is...

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IPads and teaching...our school goal is...

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It's a blessing to have one to one iPads this year, but the challenge is to now get everyone on board to view it like this....

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As of last summer I was working a dead end job. My Dad had just retired after 40 years at MCPS. During that time he received a podium that was used by his father, who was a teacher as well. Having no one left in the teaching field in the family he donated it to the school. Months later I was offered a teaching position in Frederick, MD. It seemed only natural that I made my Dad take back his gift he donated to the school so it could be brought out of retirement and put to use again. It is quite humbling every day to speak from it knowing it's history and meaning to my family.

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There is always this common question, "How do you do it all?" That question comes with the best intentions, a nice validation of the amount of work I put into my job, but it has always annoyed me. Annoyed because for as many things I do, I always have that running list of those things I wanted to do but just don't have the time for in the day, week, or year. Those items that stay on that list in mind sometimes haunt me. My impatience makes me want to try everything now and make the big sweeping changes. It is when I which the level of frustration that I stop to breathe and realize that I am only human, a work in progress.

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When will early childhood education be GOOD, and EARLY, and for the CHILD, and EDUCATION?  

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When will early childhood education be GOOD, and EARLY, and for the CHILD, and EDUCATION?  

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Every morning my classroom looks like this:

And I know this:
Report debunks ‘earlier is better’ academic instruction for young children (from the Washington Post, April 12, 2015

So why have I NOT come further in making sure my classroom looks like this ALL day and not just in the morning?

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School was where I felt at home.

The product of two minimally educated, joyless, XXXX people, I began searching for warmth and comfort in othetr places. Fortunately, I found something I was good at that also kept me around good people. My teachers, sensing my low self esteem, the dirth of loving individuals surrounding me, and my expansive capacity to learn, took an interest. I found my self worth amid chalk dust and xxxxxx. My teachers were my role models, my inspirers, that which nourished my self esteem andl xxxxx for my life long journey. A jounney of

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I teach in the Southwest corner of Virginia, the corner that closely connects to Tennessee and North Carolina. This area has a rich farming history, mainly tobacco. It is a beautiful area but farming and coal mining, the two main industries are dying. Times are hard for many families, but we are a persistent bunch and we continue to push on. With this background, and with our pronounced Southwest Virginia accent, we are sometimes perceived to be backwards and uneducated. That is a stereotype we fight all the time. Sometimes we have to remind our students not to be caught up in that stereotype. They can be successful and many of them are. A large majority of our students pursue a college degree and many go on to achieve advanced degrees. One thing our students have inherited from this farming background is good common sense and an ability to problem solve. They have been problem-solving their entire lives and this ability serves them well as they pursue their dreams.

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Third grade was the year I knew. Several times a all of the English as Second language students down to a classroom with all of the English as second language students to teach us how to read. Only problem with that was English was my first language. I vividly remember the fear or being called on to read in the classroom which ultimately coming to my did inactive conclusion. I am dumb.

That was the beginning of a painful and destructive cycle that took me to the brink and ultimately my life work.  Today I hold a Masters in Organizational Leadership and  management, serve as a CEO of a YMCA that is a national leader in closing the achievement gap.  In deep collaboration with our school districts we are winning the fight against summer learning loss and changing the way communities in  the State of Indiana shape k-12 college bound identity. Through my journey I have have shifted my beliefs about myself and the potential of the youth in our communities.

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Being an ELA director in a large suburban school district with a history of being affluent, I hear, “of course your kids are successful: they have money and privilege”.  “Good for you” accompanied by golf claps is
heard when we are successful.

Beneath that we see that 60% of our English learners are receiving free and reduced lunch. Schools are building relationships with students and families and asking for their support and letting their voices be heard.  We put our money where our mouth is and provide support to the classroom.  It is about the kids.  Students in schools in a neighboring school district IN THE SAME NEIGHBORHOOD are performing much worse than their counterparts in our district.  Yet, we still hear “well, you have a different population”.  Well, the truth is WE DON’T.  Our past is not our present and we have met the needs of our students by doing things differently; ensuring that they have access to content; not lowering the standards and meeting their needs.

The counter story that needs to be heard is that we are doing things right and it is not because of who we were, it’s because of what we are doing NOW.

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I attended 8 elementary schools and I don't have a fractured education.

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My personality is full of opposites and contraries. I am confident but insecure. Bold but timid. Adventurous but safe. Hard-working but lazy. And a great teacher, but NOT. My recent award has made me very self-conscious about this last one and I feel there are so many more deserving. And yet, I feel there is so much I can share with others. I am so afraid people will find out I am not great, or worse...already think that! This is something I strive to not allow my students to feel like, yet, I don't practice. Great lesson for myself!

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Teaching In Brookkyn NY

Stock Story: Special Education students in disinfranchised communities are doomed for failure.

Parents don't care and students are unmotivated and lazy.

Concealed Story: is really the counter narrative. These schools and communities are filled with students who are trying to find their voice and position society. Many have proven to be intelligent shining stars. Special education is a convenient label.

Our stories impact how who we are as teachers.....

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I am a first year teacher in a tiny school in a rural backwoods tiny town. Nothing ever happens there so my students are often uninspired and will end up just like their parents. The only ones who will ever get out of this tiny town will be either leaving on a football scholarship, are already rich or will be going just a little bit north to the state penitentiary. The only reason for me being there is to pass the kids along so that they may work in the same place that their parents worked. As a new teacher I have no power in the school and simply do as I am told. I understand that I will have no power to change anything until I am at least 50 and too old to care. Who would listen to a teacher anyway, especially a young female teacher.

But wait... That just doesn't sound right... Let me begin again

I am a human being who loves other human beings. I have been doing this all my life and went to college for four years so that I can better love other human beings. The way that I show that's love is through showing the magic of the world around us in a biology classroom. This year I started being paid for showing that love. My students are my special snowflakes and I will fight anyone tooth and claw that tells them anything different. They can do anything that they want to and I will help fight for them to do just that. My students live their lives in a small community that helps and supports them as best they can but sometimes it isn't quite enough. We are working on that though. My administration supports me and I get to make real changes that effect my snowflakes lives in unique ways. Though i am paid to teach them biology we also learn things like compassion, social skills, listening with their hearts and not just their minds and maybe just maybe how to use their frontal lobes instead of just their lambic systems.

I am a human being, I love what I do and more than anything I believe my snowflakes are special and unique and beautiful. Want to question that?

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Began with a plan to "teach the Bard"... An English teacher with a very focused, narrow view. But now I find myself at 30,000 feet, grapplingwith concepts and ideas far beyond that with which I ever thought I would concern myself. I'm viewed as a staff developer... A pseudo-administrator who has some good ideas, but is no longer in the classroom, so maybe without a grasp of what it really is like to be a teacher. And I was, in my first few years in this job, worried that such would be the case.

What I've discovered, though, is that this job has forced me to be so much better than I would have been had I stayed in the classroom. I want to go back and apologize to my first three years of students. "Hey guys! We had some fun and you learned some stuff, but if I had known then what I know now about education, about you, about the way that your brains work... Oh... If only I had known!"

From 30,000 feet, teachers and principals and central office... From 30,000 feet, with the time that you have graced me to study and research and ponder... From 30,000 feet I can see some of the things that you don't. Give me a few moments. Consider what I'm saying. Ask me any question! If I don't know it... I'll find it for you!