OK, so today was the proverbial roller coaster of awesome and awful. In points to speed along: Start the day with my kids NOT LISTENING at all. As in, I explain something, or I give directions, or I remind them for the umpteenth time that Napoleon (who shows up in our story about Egypt…long story)…

The results are in. His working memory, or how much information he can keep in his head at once, is in the 3rd percentile. Cognitive efficiency, or how well he can make his brain do what it’s supposed to, is in the 1st percentile. Short-term memory, or how well he can remember what you told…

My mother requested that I write this post, so here goes. I love being surprised by how much one thing can affect learning. The thing this time is a new whiteboard easel, which I got (amazingly!) from EXTRA money my school had???? Whaaaat??? This never happens. But anyway. Because I had this whiteboard, I could…

The title of this post is a direct quote from my mentor teacher, of 12 years’ experience in my dysfunctional school. Every time someone says something about how there aren’t any good teachers out here, or teachers don’t really care about kids, I think about this woman and remember, once more, why overgeneralizations are stupid.…

I sent home a parent survey to try to get parent voices involved. It was basic stuff–what do you see going well? What would you like to change? Would you like to hear from me more? That sort of thing. On the minus side, having sent it home twice, I only got 3 back (we’ll…

On Friday we had our Christmas assembly. Side note: anyone who says rural America manages to separate religion and school is kidding themselves. 98% of our students are Christian (there’s one Muslim family in the school), many of them devoutly so. Also, because of the stunning lack of outside world experience our kids have, most…

I had the best day with my kids today. It was the last day of school before winter break, and we were careful to finish almost all of our testing yesterday because Christmas is one of the two holidays a year that are school-approved to have a party. My mentor teacher and I were talking…

First of all, thanks to all who wrote such kind words on my last post–I am continuously blown away that people who aren’t my parents read what I write, and especially when people like Gary Rubinstein and mathinaz (two people whose blogs I read on a regular basis) appreciate my musings…pretty heady stuff. Anyway, I…

TFA has just welcomed its newest members of the corps of 2012, those who applied first and second deadlines. And while I welcome you with open arms, am excited you are here, and truly believe you will do your best for your kids, you have no idea what to expect. So, not to be the…

I can’t get over this. Best misspelled fourth-grade answer ever: vocabulary sentence for the word “pressure.” Sentence: “I put pressure on a balloon and it poop right in my face!” Don’t you hate it when that happens?