Category: Musings
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If By the Science of Reading
A stance and a writing activity My friends, I had not intended to discuss this controversial subject at this particular time. However, I want you to know that I do not shun controversy. On the contrary, I will take a stand on any issue at any time, regardless of how…
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Let’s make school easier and more fun.
Last night, as I was trying to massage the dirt flavor out of kale, I had an epiphany: we need to make schools easier and more fun. Now before you blow a gasket, I mean easier and more fun for teachers. The fact that your first inclination was to yell,…
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3 Things I Learned from Joining a Writer’s Club
When I moved to Jackson, TN over two years ago I had a problem. I was desperately missing my cherished book club from my hometown in South Mississippi. So I went to the local library to see about joining one and the most applicable club on offer was a Writer’s…
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Bless Your Heart, Lucy Calkins
I was first introduced to the ideas of Lucy Calkins during a summer institute with the South Mississippi Writing Project. We discussed both her and Marie Clay as they applied to writing, particularly writing workshop, which has a lot of beautiful elements to it. I had never heard of the…
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5 Takeaways from Teaching in a Top District
I had the uncommon good fortune to teach in the same school district in which I was a student. In my first year of teaching, I taught kindergarten across the hall from my former kindergarten teacher. Talk about full circle. The Petal School District, the district that made me who…
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Add These to Your Professional TBR List
You are what you read. Each of these books has significantly impacted my teaching career and I find myself turning to these books on my shelf over and over again. I highly recommend you adding a book or two from this list to your “To Be Read” pile. I am…
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Our Third Graders Can’t Read
The most recent scores from the end of the year Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) sent principals and teachers across the state scrambling to provide summer school for students who did not pass the newly adopted third-grade reading gate. This is the first year Tennessee required schools to comply with…