Most spring days involve a few good events, some pretty average experiences and, of course, a fair share of frustrations, warnings and “Stop throwing things out the window!” For the most part, I close my day with an adequate sense of fulfillment and hit the light switches to end another measured compartment of shared time…

The snow is melting and the red breasts of the robins come in and out of view through my living room window. A twilight cruise out to Sinte Gleska University will sound the alarms of the prairie dogs, now digging again. Slow drives through the streets of teacher housing or south side Antelope pass you…

My students often struggle with the fact that my class doesn’t have very many answers. In free writing responses or during class discussion, I’ll often remind them: “There is no right or wrong answer here,” they look at me like I’m nuts each time, “there’s no equation to solve or date to remember – I…

Last spring and over the summer, a good portion of my blog was dedicated to a project called: What It Takes To Begin. The project was essentially a chance for the teachers we live and work with to share their stories. Based on the idea – this past October, we gathered for a dinner and…

This year at the One Act Play Regional Competition, we didn’t fare as well as we did last year. Actually, we did pretty badly: 5th out of 6 schools competing. I remember telling myself early that morning before I cranked the bus to pick up the shivering actors: simply taking the kids out to compete…

How do you plan for a contest that basically requires you to know everything? Well…we locked ourselves in my classroom and tried to learn everything about everything: Explorers, Native American history, US history, world geography, current events, bugs, biology, dinosaurs, wars, math word problems and plate tectonics. In the end, Todd County High School’s Quiz…

I’m glad that Stoic still visits my classroom. He comes in early in the mornings and likes to tell me about a dream he had the night before or a thought he’s working on. He has some great ideas and, as I’ve mentioned before – he’s a sharp, introspective guy with a deep connection to…

I think my students appreciate when they know I’m walking with them. Most days I can sell my students on what I need them to learn. But some days even linking our work to something interesting, or their futures, isn’t enough. Some days (only the grayest ones, it seems) – I must sit on my…

Of course my students aren’t going to want to do the work I ask them to do. Of course. I wouldn’t either – That is, unless someone sold it to me in a way that made me believe. In a way that pushed me to see what is behind the work. It sounds simple, but…

What will it be today to anchor me in this rushing time? What will it be today to seal my conscious into each layer of slanting daylight? These things I wonder when I duck out of the back room with the flame in the corner – the room that opens the day to us from…