As a teacher, I understand that I need to prepare for the unexpected. Maybe it's an unplanned fire drill interrupting a lesson. Maybe my students just don't understand a unit and I need to do an extra review. Maybe my class is having problems being kind and I need to stop for a class meeting. So many maybes... I never would have thought I'd be delaying our routine for two weeks for a pandemic. I just wasn't prepared. There are just so many uncertainties. We were able to release some suggested activities for students, and we did. However, what the general public doesn't understand is why public school can't make those activities requirements. The law says that there must be equal opportunities for all when it comes to education. As it should. Which means, we must think about our students who don't have access to online platforms for instruction. We also must account for our students who have Individualized Education Plans and need differentiated i
Writer's Notebook: This year, I decided to try the March Challenge and write with my students every day. I wrote with them in the beginning of the year a few times as a model, but this is the first that I'm consistently writing. In fact as I'm typing this, my students are writing in their writing journals. For my journal, I've mostly been keeping a diary of my observations about the daily quick writes. I am trying to make sure that our five minutes is well spent in regards to building writing fluency. Something I've noticed and mentioned in one of my entries is how quiet the majority of the students are at this time. There a a few that whisper occasionally, but not disruptively. Even when I notice a student stop and appear to be thinking, they usually aren't stopping to chat with a neighboring student. So what is it that has them so engaged? Is it because of the choice they have in picking their own topic? Is it because it's really the onl